FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn plans to address the Florida Public Service Commission Tuesday, the PSC said in a Monday news release. The Democrat, a former state commissioner from South Carolina, will provide an FCC update and “is expected to discuss pending rules to modernize the Lifeline Assistance telephone discount program, the Connecting Communities initiative, the Solutions 2020 conference, and other issues,” the PSC said. States face a Friday FCC deadline to align their low-income programs with the updated federal Lifeline. Clyburn is to speak after the PSC’s 9:30 a.m. special commission conference.

The New York Public Service Commission hearings for its Verizon copper probe are postponed until April 19, the PSC ruled Wednesday. The commission granted an extension of time for testimony that the Communications Workers of America sought and Verizon supported. CWA asked for delay because it said discovery is incomplete (see 1611230049). Initial testimony is now due Jan. 16, and rebuttal testimony March 13, with hearings to start April 9, the commission said.

Charter and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission attempted to shoot down each other’s motions for summary judgment before Dec. 13 oral argument in federal court on whether the PUC may regulate Charter’s VoIP service as a telecom service (see 1611020037). Charter’s complaint alleged the PUC overstepped its authority by imposing on VoIP services state regulations for traditional phone services. The case began in March 2013, when the company transferred 100,000 Minnesota customers to an affiliate that provided VoIP phone service that wasn't certified by the PUC. The agency said interconnected VoIP is a telecom service subject to state regulation, but the operator and the Voice on the Net Coalition said it’s an information service subject only to FCC regulation. The U.S. District Court in St. Paul should deny Charter’s motion “because it charts an incorrect legal course rife with genuine disputes of material fact,” the PUC said Wednesday (in Pacer). There’s not enough evidence to support Charter's claim that its VoIP service is an information service, the state commission said. Rather, the record "only supports classifying Charter Phone as a telecommunications service," it said. Charter gave an opposite assessment of the record as it sought denial of the Minnesota PUC’s motion. "While the MPUC's motion urges that Spectrum Voice should be classified as a telecommunications service, its motion fails to present any competent evidence -- much less undisputed evidence -- in support of that conclusion,” the cable company said (in Pacer).

The Vermont Public Service Board may not require cable and fiber VoIP providers to provide backup power because federal law pre-empts state regulation of VoIP, said the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition. In a Nov. 22 brief emailed to us Wednesday, the VON Coalition sought amicus curiae status in a proceeding about Vermont 911 reliability (docket 8842). The backup power isn’t necessary, the coalition said, because the FCC already requires voice companies, including VoIP providers, to sell backup power options to consumers. The Vermont board plans to soon rule in a separate docket on state authority over VoIP services, PSB member Sarah Hofmann said earlier this month on a panel at the NARUC annual conference (see 1611150014). Meanwhile, at the Iowa Utilities Board, the VON Coalition submitted comments (docket RMU-2015-0002) supporting a new definition for a telephone utility that excludes VoIP services. “The proposed changes align with federal law and recognize that the Board does not have jurisdiction over VoIP or IP-enabled services,” the coalition said. “The Board action is also consistent with decisions by at least 31 other states that do not exercise regulatory authority over IP communications.” CenturyLink and other former Bells also supported the new definition, but competitors and Iowa rural LECs objected to them in comments last week (see 1611230040).

The Utah Public Service Commission took a step toward aligning state Lifeline rules with the updated federal program for low-income households. In an order Tuesday, the commission granted a CenturyLink request for waiver to use the same eligibility requirements for federal and state Lifeline programs. The waiver becomes effective on the FCC’s Dec. 2 implementation deadline. To make the change permanent, the commission also proposed amending the Utah rule establishing the state Lifeline program to reflect the waiver decision and to align the rule with FCC regulations on recertification. The PSC said it expects to publish the amended rule Dec. 15 in the Utah State Bulletin, with a potential effective date of Jan. 24. By granting the waiver, the commission added Lifeline eligibility based on participation in the Veterans Pension and Survivors Pension Benefit program and removed eligibility based on participation in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and National School Free Lunch Program. The PSC said removing those programs “is not likely to disqualify any Utah consumers who are currently participating in the state Lifeline program.” An FCC Wireline Bureau official last week said the FCC will respond soon to USTelecom and state petitions to postpone the Dec. 2 deadline (see 1611140052).

Google Fiber and Webpass are still at loggerheads with the National Diversity Coalition over Google’s acquisition of Webpass’ CLEC license in California, the companies told the California Public Utilities Commission. Google and Webpass last month closed on the rest of the transaction, but the acquisition of the Webpass telecom affiliate remains pending before the CPUC (see 1610030035). The parties "met in constructive conversations" and talks continue, Google and Webpass said in a preconference statement released Wednesday by the CPUC. But the companies framed the acquisition as small and said there’s no good reason to hold it up any longer. “This transaction does not have an impact on customers, does not result in increases in market share, and is of the type that the Commission routinely approves.” But the coalition said in a separate statement the CPUC must hold the deal to a higher merger review standard due to the large size of Google and its parent Alphabet.

Louisville, Kentucky, urged a federal court to dismiss Charter’s complaint against the city’s one-touch, make-ready policy. Charter subsidiary Insight's claim that Kentucky pole attachments law pre-empts Louisville's “should be dismissed because the Louisville Metro ordinance challenged by Insight is an exercise of right-of-way management that does not fall within the jurisdiction of the Kentucky Public Service Commission,” the city said in a Tuesday motion (in Pacer). The city said Charter waived other claims based on the First and 14th amendments when it agreed to a cable franchise agreement with Louisville. The city treats Charter differently from AT&T and Google because Charter is a cable operator and therefore subject to different rules, Louisville said. Also, the city rejected Charter's claim the ordinance violated the Fifth Amendment takings clause, which says private property shall not "be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The court should dismiss that claim because Charter "has not alleged the taking of a legally cognizable property right,” the city said. Last month, the FCC supported the Louisville one-touch ordinance in a separate lawsuit by AT&T (see 1610310053).

New York state officials made their case to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai's office for a waiver of Connect America Fund rules requiring Phase II broadband-oriented subsidy support to be awarded in the state through a federal reverse auction. The waiver would "dramatically facilitate" the buildout of high-speed networks, "consistent with Commissioner Pai’s goals of quickly removing regulatory impediments to the deployment of broadband services in rural communities," said the Empire State Development filing in docket 10-90. New York wants to tap the federal Phase II funding, which incumbent telco Verizon turned down, for use in its own state reverse auction of broadband subsidies (see 1610130047). Pai is considered likely to be named chairman under President-elect Donald Trump, at least in an acting capacity (see 1611140066).

Landline declines caused FairPoint to cut 110 jobs in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, a spokeswoman said Monday. “We must take what are often difficult steps to address the reality of a decline in landline usage." Maine and Vermont regulators have been eyeing the company's service quality reports and reporting rules (see 1610040021). The Maine legislature earlier this year passed a law to remove the telco's provider-of-last-resort obligations in phases (see 1609130057).

It shouldn’t be up to the District of Columbia Public Service Commission whether to expand the D.C. Universal Service Trust Fund to support broadband and wireless services, Verizon said Monday. Such an expansion "would represent the type of policy shift best decided by the Mayor and DC Council,” Verizon replied on a PSC notice of inquiry in docket FC988. The D.C. commission lacks jurisdiction to regulate broadband and wireless providers, Verizon said. It's “inequitable” to require local exchange and VoIP providers that fund the USTF to subsidize broadband and wireless services, it said. “It would increase the amount of subsidy necessary to support universal service so that landline providers and customers would have to provide increased funding at a time when customers are increasingly abandoning landline services.” Last week, the PSC aligned eligibility and other rules with the updated federal program (docket RM28-2016-01). “The amendments in the [notice of proposed rulemaking] make the Commission’s telecommunications universal service rules consistent with the FCC’s rules,” the PSC order said. The rules will become effective upon publication in the D.C. Register. That might occur on the FCC deadline of Dec. 2, PSC Chairwoman Betty Ann Kane said last week at the NARUC annual meeting in La Quinta, California (see 1611140052).