Cox Communications said it will support the California Public Utilities Commission's request for an extension to the FCC Dec. 2 LifeLine implementation deadline. A CPUC spokeswoman confirmed Monday her agency will file at the FCC for an extension but hasn't yet. In replies posted Sunday, the operator said it “understands that the Commission will be filing a petition with the FCC requesting an extension of time to comply with the FCC rules concerning only eligibility criteria and the benefit portability freeze.” Cox heard that at the CPUC’s Oct. 14 LifeLine workshop, which went over federal changes to add broadband as a supported service, it said. “Cox supports the Commission seeking this extension and remains hopeful that the FCC will act promptly to grant the Commission’s petition well in advance of the December 2, 2016 deadline.” Industry and some states separately supported a USTelecom petition seeking a waiver of the deadline in 25 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. (see 1610210046). The D.C. Public Service Commission declined more time in comments posted in FCC docket 11-42 Friday: “Should unanticipated events prevent the DC PSC from amending its rules by December 2, 2016, the DC PSC will inform the Commission of this fact.” New York PSC comments to the FCC joined Michigan, Missouri and Puerto Rico regulators in supporting the USTelecom petition. In the Cox CPUC replies, the cable ISP urged the commission to “promptly adopt rules to align the California LifeLine eligibility requirements with the federal requirements.” AT&T told the CPUC any diversion from federal rules is risky and the commission shouldn’t adopt exceptions proposed by consumer groups (see 1610180028). “The potential for consumer confusion is too great for the Commission to go its own way on eligibility criteria,” AT&T said. Likewise, exceptions to FCC port freeze requirements “will be complex to implement and will ultimately only harm and confuse customers,” it said. The Office of Ratepayer Advocates supports aligning rules but worries about doing it too fast, it said. “An immediate transition will likely result in significant disruption and displacement of customers from the LifeLine program, particularly at a time when details of the FCC’s implementation have not been fully worked out. A gradual transition over a longer period is preferable because it will allow the Commission to better care for the needs of customers impacted by changes in eligibility requirements.”

AT&T lost a Florida court challenge of a reported $360 million contract the state signed with Harris Corp. In an opinion Friday, the Florida Court of Appeal for the 1st District affirmed the final order of the Department of Management Services that dismissed the telco’s protest of the department awarding Harris the contract for managing the state’s enterprise telecom system after AT&T’s contract expired. The court disagreed that the department erred in its process for the Invitation to Negotiate. "We’ve received a copy of the decision and are currently reviewing it," an AT&T spokesman said. A Florida department spokeswoman said the court decision "reflects and reaffirms the department’s commitment to a fair, open and competitive procurement process."

Rural Montanans asked about national public safety network coverage in a FirstNet state consultation meeting in rural Glasgow this month, FirstNet Region 8 Outreach and Consultation Lead Tracey Murdock wrote in a Wednesday blog post. FirstNet also visited Billings, Montana’s largest city, with a population of about 115,000, Murdock said. “Montana public safety leaders also expressed interest in the potential cost of subscribing to the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network, the use of their own devices on the Network, the security of data, and meeting Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy rules,” she wrote. “We also received feedback on the types of mobile applications they wished they had, such as layered mapping to know what is under the road and real-time satellite imaging for wild fires. An EMS [emergency medical service] provider discussed how the network could improve access to emergency information that is now only available to law enforcement.”

To protect FairPoint due process rights, the Maine Public Utilities Commission should give the company a hearing on all the quarters in which the PUC says it failed to meet service quality standards, the telco said. In a reply brief Wednesday, the telco disagreed with the Office of Public Advocate, which supported a hearing on recent quarters but said FairPoint already had a chance to argue Q3 and Q4 2015 at a May 18, 2015, technical conference (see 1610170011). Fairpoint replied, “The Technical Conference was not a hearing. It was a Technical Conference.”

Rural telecom companies in Montana aim to connect all rural schools in the state with fiber or -- in the most remote places -- point-to-point wireless connections by year-end 2017, the Montana Telecommunications Association said Tuesday. That will provide 1 Mbps bandwidth per student, MTA said in a rural broadband report on efforts by the association’s nine member companies and cooperatives. Today, 78 percent of Montana schools are connected with at least 100 kbps per student, it said. MTA members spent $248.6 million on fiber broadband infrastructure since 2011, it said. “Our members serve areas of the state where cows and deer greatly outnumber houses and businesses,” said MTA General Manager Geoff Feiss. “We’re connecting rural Montanans to the kinds of advanced communications services and plentiful bandwidth that they’ll need to thrive.”

The Kansas Corporation Commission reduced annual state USF support for RLECs by $411,976 and revised their originating intrastate access rates to bring them to parity with interstate rates. The RLECs will increase intrastate access revenue by a net $438,101. The changes will be effective July to coincide with FCC implementation of intercarrier compensation rules, the PSC said in the Tuesday order. Also, the PSC required RLECs to file revised intrastate access tariffs in a separate proceeding the KCC will open later on the FCC’s 2017 changes. Kansas commissioners raised alarm over falling state USF revenue, but a 2016 statute bars the commission from changing its revenue-based contribution method (see 1607010010).

Two federal courts extended filing due dates in AT&T lawsuits against municipal one-touch, make-ready ordinances. In an order (in Pacer) Wednesday, U.S. District Court in Louisville granted an AT&T motion for extension, allowing the company to reply by Oct. 31 in support of its motion for summary judgment against Louisville. In an order (in Pacer) Tuesday, U.S. District Court in Nashville granted a Nashville motion for extension allowing the city to respond by Nov. 14 to an AT&T lawsuit. The telco sued both cities because the company claims municipalities lack authority to regulate pole attachments. The cities passed the measures to speed deployments of Google Fiber and those of future new entrants (see 1610060044).

The Missouri Public Service Commission supported a USTelecom petition to give some states more time to align state Lifeline rules with changes to the federal program that added broadband as a supported service to the low-income program. With an FCC implementation deadline coming early in December, multiple states are expected to support the USTelecom petition in comments due to the commission Friday in docket 11-42 (see 1610180028). The association asked for temporary waiver of certain rules so Lifeline providers can continue enrolling consumers in the federal USF low-income subsidy support program based on state-specific criteria in 25 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. In comments posted Wednesday, the Missouri PSC said it won’t meet the FCC Dec. 2 deadline because it faces a lengthy rulemaking process. Historically, getting a required fiscal impact review from the state Department of Economic Development has taken “a few weeks to over a year,” it said. “As a general rule a minimum of six months is needed to complete a formal rulemaking.”

Competitive barriers limit new telecom network entrants and may mean higher prices for some services above “efficiently competitive levels” in the state, the California Public Utilities Commission said Tuesday. The CPUC released a proposed decision on telecom industry competition (docket I.15-11-007); commissioners may vote on it as soon as Dec. 1, the agency said in a news release. If commissioners adopt the proposal, they will order staff to “(a) continue to monitor developments in the telecommunications market; (b) obtain, compile, and publish actual residential broadband speeds obtainable by consumers throughout the state; (c) promote safe and non-discriminatory access to utility poles and conduits by cable and wireless companies; and (d) ensure that Public Purpose Programs, such as California LifeLine and the California Advanced Services Fund, continue to close the digital divide,” the CPUC said. “One particular bottleneck is access to utility poles, where the CPUC’s safety mandate meets, and must be reconciled with, the CPUC’s goal of a competitive market.” The agency said it’s not sure if wireless and VoIP growth has kept prices for landline services reasonable, or whether that question is relevant in a market where voice is usually bundled with broadband and other services. As technology advances, the digital divide has widened between geographic and economic groups in state, the CPUC said. Voice and internet access has rapidly converged, with wireless and cable-based VoIP quickly displacing landline telephones, and that has multiplied the economic and social importance of the telecom network, it said.

The California Public Utilities Commission may vote Dec. 1 or 15 on a rural call completion order, said a proposed CPUC decision Monday extending the statutory deadline in the proceeding by 60 days to Jan. 5. Commissioner Catherine Sandoval plans to prepare a draft order later this month that will address call completion, access and 911 issues and outages, including those that occurred after the April 1 transfer of the Verizon California wireline business to Frontier Communications, said the proposed decision in docket I.14-05-012. CPUC members plan to vote on the deadline extension Oct. 27, according to a meeting agenda. At commissioners' Oct. 13 meeting, Sandoval said it appeared software was to blame for the Frontier outage, but poor customer service exacerbated the problems. A Frontier official said the same day that the company “worked diligently” to resolve transition problems and is now operating in normal business mode (see 1610130059). In comments posted over the weekend, the telecom industry said it didn’t see major call completion problems in rural California, but a consumer group flagged spotty wireless service and deteriorating wireline plant (see 1610170035).