Alabama awarded $42 million to last-mile broadband projects with cash from the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund, Gov. Kay Ivey (R) said Monday. The awarded projects are expected to connect about 15,000 households, businesses and anchor institutions, the governor’s office said. Big grant winners included Charter Communications ($19.4 million), Bama Fiber ($5 million) and C-Spire ($5 million). Ivey previously announced $148.3 million in CPF broadband awards in February (see 2402280035).

North Carolina started prequalifying ISPs seeking to participate in NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, the state IT department said Monday. NTIA allocated about $1.5 billion to North Carolina. While not required, prequalification is meant “to streamline the application process and ensure applicants meet the program’s minimum and mandatory requirements,” said the department: Potential applicants must prequalify by Nov. 2.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals misread the 1996 Telecom Act when it ruled that the federal statute doesn't preempt the New York Affordable Broadband Act, TechFreedom said in an amicus brief Friday at the U.S. Supreme Court, which supported ISP associations seeking SCOTUS review. The 2021 state law required $15 monthly plans with 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for qualifying low-income households. The 2nd Circuit upheld the law based on Title I regulation of broadband a day after the FCC reclassified it as Title II, a decision that the 6th Circuit later stayed. "New York was not free to ignore the deregulatory aims Congress codified in Title I,” the think tank argued in its brief. "Congress wants Title I information services to flourish under a light-touch regulatory regime. New York’s law imposing rate regulations on broadband is conflict-preempted, and a divided panel of the Second Circuit erred in holding otherwise." The 2nd Circuit incorrectly assumed that "because there is express preemptive authority in Title II, there can be no implied preemptive authority in Title I,” said TechFreedom. “There is no rule by which preemption may be implied when Congress elects to regulate, but must be express when Congress elects not to regulate.” It added that allowing New York to treat broadband like common carriage would permit the state to treat any Title I information service, including email and text messaging, the same way.

Verizon will use its Simple Mobile brand in the relaunched California LifeLine foster youth pilot program. Each participant gets a smartphone, charger and phone case, plus unlimited talk and text, 25 GB mobile data and 10 GB hot spot data for no cost, Verizon said Friday. The CPUC selected Verizon to replace T-Mobile in May (see 2405160046).

Interconnected VoIP providers are telephone corporations subject to the same laws and rules as other wireline and wireless telcos, the California Public Utilities Commission said in a proposed decision Friday. The CPUC may vote as soon as Oct. 17 on the item that aims to set a regulatory framework for VoIP providers (docket R.22-08-008). Consumer groups dismissed industry concerns that VoIP regulation is federally preempted (see 2307030036). "California’s Constitution specifically extends the Commission’s jurisdiction to companies engaged in ‘the transmission of telephone and telegraph messages,’” said the draft. “This includes services delivered over any technology, including but not limited to, traditional copper lines, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, and mobile or fixed wireless radios.” Under the proposal, the CPUC would create two utility type designations. Digital voice nomadic (DVN) providers, covering those with only nomadic interconnected VoIP services, would be subject to a registration process similar to the CPUC's existing wireless identification registration, it said. Digital voice fixed (DVF) providers that sell fixed interconnected VoIP would "continue to be subject to operating authority requirements similar to traditional wireline service providers,” the draft said. DVN and DVF providers would be required to post performance bonds, pay the CPUC user fee and file annual operating and affiliate transaction reports, it said. The state commission would require facilities-based interconnected VoIP providers to obtain certificates of public convenience and necessity to operate in California. Non-facilities-based fixed interconnected VoIP service providers would use the Public Utilities Code Section 1013 registration process to get operating authority. The CPUC proposed an automatic migration process for interconnected VoIP providers already registered under the previous informal process under Section 285. Also, the CPUC would remove some existing requirements for wireline telcos to align with the interconnected VoIP rules, the draft said. The agency said improvements to application processes for operating authority would include "standardized fees and performance bond amounts," an expedited 21-day California Environmental Quality Act review process and "presumptive confidential treatment of certain financial and business information."

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission awarded more than $27.8 million for broadband adoption and digital navigators using American Rescue Plan Act money from the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund, Gov. Tony Evers (D) said Friday. The 11 funded projects will provide loaned devices to 52,409 households and free Wi-Fi to 33,682 households, the governor’s office said. The largest of the Wisconsin awards was $16.5 million for United Way to distribute 33,000 devices to low-income households.

ISPs and consumer advocates recommended tweaks as the California Public Utilities Commission began finalizing state rules for NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. The CPUC plans voting Sept. 26 on a proposed decision approving rules implementing volume two of the CPUC’s proposed rules, which it submitted to NTIA in December. Determining the extremely high cost per location threshold (EHCPLT) on a project area unit (PAU) basis as proposed "will lead to inconsistent results,” said AT&T in comments Thursday, recommending a statewide approach instead. “Such piecemeal and fluctuating EHCPLT determinations make project predictability difficult as applicants formulate their submissions and will likely increase the number of PAUs that would be too costly for fiber deployments.” Also, several proposals would "result in rate regulation in violation of the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act," including a proposed middle-class affordable option with a $74 monthly rate cap, AT&T said. The California Broadband & Video Association advised that CPUC maximize BEAD funding’s reach “by prioritizing private matching funds over speculative awards from other grant programs and by ensuring that applicants have the financial capability and sustainability for their proposed projects.” Avoid discouraging participation with "restrictive price caps" or "skewed scoring criteria related to affordability, labor, and network resilience,” the cable association said. But Tarana Wireless asked the CPUC to reconsider scoring criteria that favor big companies. For example, one category "will only award a full 20 points to providers capable of providing at least a 65% private sector match or more of requested funding amount," a requirement that's "unusually high and favors larger and wealthier service providers.” The CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office urged setting "a hire bar" for allowing a subgrantee to increase the price of a required $30 low-cost option. Center for Accessible Technology, another consumer group, asked why companies may request increasing low-cost plan prices to account for inflation or increased costs, but there’s no way to reduce prices “when a provider’s financial viability can be sustained at the lower level.” The Utility Reform Network said the CPUC should plan for the possibility that the low-cost option and affordability issues may need to be revisited, including due to the end of the affordable connectivity program.

NTIA cleared three more initial plans for the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. Idaho may now access its $483 million BEAD allocation, while North Dakota can tap $130 million and American Samoa $37 million, NTIA said Thursday. The federal agency has approved initial BEAD plans for 43 of 56 U.S. jurisdictions. It approved New Jersey’s plan Sept. 6 (see 2409090009). Also Thursday, Colorado started accepting applications for its $826.5 million BEAD allocation. “Being one of the first to open this funding positions us ahead of other states and territories, and will lead to Colorado completing projects faster,” said Gov. Jared Polis (D) in a news release.

Fewer than 1% of Californians exercised opt-out rights with the largest data brokers last year, a Consumer Watchdog report released Thursday found. The consumer group said it analyzed opt-out numbers for Experian, Acxiom and LiveRamp. People probably aren’t exercising their rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in higher numbers “because these rights aren’t user friendly, as opting out has to be done website by website, and that takes forever,” said Justin Kloczko, Consumer Watchdog tech and privacy advocate. That could soon change, he said. Under the 2023 Delete Act, Californians will be able to delete all data that a data broker collects in one step starting in 2026, said Kloczko. In addition, if Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signs AB-3048, which passed the legislature last month (see 2408290005), consumers will be able to opt out from the sale of and sharing data on all websites through a required option in web browsers, he said.

Vermont wants to make it cheaper for residents living more than 400 feet from roadways with fiber lines to connect to high-speed internet, the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCCB) said Thursday. The board unanimously approved a resolution directing staff to develop a program that would provide funds to qualified providers to cover the extra cost to reach farther-away, low-income Vermonters, the VCCB said. The board estimated it can cost several thousands of dollars for aerial drops -- and more for underground drops. The planned Long Drop Program fund will use $1.5 million from Vermont’s Connectivity Initiative and up to $2.5 million in federal funding from the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund that returned to the VCCB after some previously awarded broadband projects came in under budget, the board said. Inviting comments on the program while it’s developed, the VCCB said it plans to issue a request for proposals “toward the end of the year.”