Minnesota rolled out text-to-911 statewide, the Department of Public Safety said Tuesday. Los Angeles County got text-to-911 last week (see 1712040018), but many Americans still can't text 911 (see 1611290042).

Residential customer complaints about phone service spiked 34 percent at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in 2016, the PUC said in a Wednesday news release. They were 1,662 of 10,368 total in 2016, as all complaints about regulated utilities decreased 3 percent, an annual overall complaint report found. Fifty-one percent of the phone complaints were about unsatisfactory service. The rest concerned billing disputes (15 percent), service delivery (11 percent), service terminations (3 percent) and competition (1 percent).

Abandoning copper might bring fiber faster, said California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker in opening remarks at a CPUC IP transition workshop livestreamed Wednesday. Pole space can limit competition, he said. “If we can free up pole space by abandoning the copper wire backbone in certain portions of the system, do we actually provide a better system that better serves people’s needs?” Picker acknowledged arguments copper provides better safety during emergencies because it’s resilient during power outages but said copper lines still went down in some recent emergencies.

New Hampshire’s FirstNet opt-out review committee didn’t recommend opt-in or opt-out in a final report for Gov. Chris Sununu (R) completed Tuesday, state and Rivada officials told us Wednesday. Sununu created the committee to mull regulatory and financial risks of rejecting the AT&T state plan and building its own radio access network (see 1710160063). At a Tuesday meeting, the committee said “it would not recommend Opt-in, or Opt-out, but rather identify the risks associated with either decision,” said New Hampshire Single Point of Contact John Stevens. The report also discusses how the state could mitigate risks through contract negotiations, a Rivada spokesman said: “Now it is up to Sununu.” FirstNet and AT&T didn’t comment. States have until Dec. 28 to decide whether to opt out.

Utah carriers don’t have to use the Lifeline national verifier system (NVS) starting Jan. 1, as previously required, the Public Service Commission said in a Tuesday stay of its Aug. 24 order. The FCC earlier moved back the date when carriers must use the system to address security issues (see 1712010042). Universal Service Administrative Co. set March 13 as the must-use deadline, the PSC said. The state agency plans to lift the stay “when the NVS operational date is clear” but be prepared, that commission said. Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming also were part of the initial launch of the Lifeline national verifier announced in an Aug. 31 FCC public notice.

Telecom officials raised no major objections at a Maine Public Utilities Commission hearing Tuesday on a proposal to revamp contributions to the Maine Telecom Education Access Fund, Maine's E-rate fund. The PUC is deciding how to implement this year's state law changing MTEAF contributions to a voice connections-based mechanism from one based on intrastate revenue. Contributions were capped at 0.7 percent of intrastate retail voice revenue, but declining revenue over the past five years necessitated changes, said a notice last month in docket 2017-00283. Under the law, the PUC now will assess 21 cents maximum per line or number, with the actual amount determined by the commission. The PUC proposed that voice providers report quarterly a count of active phone lines, customers or numbers -- up to 25 lines or numbers per customer billing account -- and multiply that by the contribution factor to get the amount they must remit. At Tuesday's hearing, a Telecommunications Association of Maine official asked that the rule not be implemented until July at earliest, and a FairPoint Communications official suggested a minor edit clarifying application to VoIP providers. Written comments are due Dec. 15. A later proceeding will decide the exact amount of the contribution factor, said Maine PUC telecom staffer Rich Kania. Some other state commissions may soon adopt connections-based contribution for their state USFs, amid objections from CTIA (see 1712010055).

Los Angeles County residents can now send text messages to 911, the California Office of Emergency Services said in a Friday news release. “This technology can save lives and meets the needs of a growing population that relies on text messaging as a key form of communication,” said Director Mark Ghilarducci. Many Americans remain unable to text 911 for emergencies (see 1611290042).

The California Public Utilities Commission cooperated with the state attorney general and federal officials in investigations of the agency, CPUC said in a Friday news release. The agency responded to California Sen. Jerry Hill (D), Assemblymember Kevin Mullin (D) and San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane urging California AG Xavier Becerra (D) to file charges in a 3-year-old probe of alleged corruption at the CPUC. The investigation involves the 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno. The mayor and state legislators wrote to Becerra that recently unsealed court documents show CPUC blocking the AG’s efforts, they said in a Friday news release. The commission denied it. “The CPUC has produced more than one million documents to the Attorney General,” the agency said. “The CPUC has also appropriately asked questions of the Attorney General in order to ensure that relevant and appropriate information was being provided by the CPUC so that time and money was not being spent gathering non-relevant documents.” Becerra didn't comment Monday.

Verizon lacks authority to seek data from the District of Columbia Office of People’s Counsel in the Public Service Commission’s investigation into service-quality standards for LECs, OPC said in a Friday letter in RM27-2014-01. “Verizon does not have independent investigatory authority nor has the Commission established a procedural schedule in this proceeding pursuant to which discovery can be propounded." The carrier asked OPC how many D.C. complaints it got about Verizon from 2014 to 2017, by category, and if OPC changed its categories of Verizon complaints since 2011. The company declined to comment Monday.

The Utah Public Service Commission said it won’t reconsider moving to a connections-based contribution mechanism for state USF on Jan. 1. In a Thursday notice in docket 17-R360-01, the PSC said it will deny CTIA’s application for rehearing. CTIA is weighing next steps in Utah, a spokeswoman said. CTIA also had asked the Nebraska PSC to reconsider its separate decision to adopt a connections-based contribution method (see 1711150049). The wireless association filed a motion for appeal Thursday that replaces the earlier motion for reconsideration, a Nebraska PSC spokesman said. The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission also is mulling a USF contribution revamp, in case 17-00202-UT (see 1711020044). New Mexico commissioners last week voted 3-1, with one member excused, to increase its revenue-based state USF surcharge to 6.06 percent for 2018, up from 5.03 percent in 2017.