Maryland awarded $19.6 million to extend broadband to about 2,400 unserved households, said Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Friday. Funded by the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund, the awards will help the state broadband office “partner with local governments and internet service providers to close critical, 'home stretch' gaps in their broadband infrastructure to provide that essential access for unserved homes in their communities,” said Jake Day, Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development secretary.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin approved a kids’ privacy bill after the Democrat-controlled legislature rejected his suggested changes. Legislators last month balked at the Republican governor’s proposed amendment to cross-filed bills HB-707 and SB-361. Youngkin sought to add language related to the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (see 2404180037). With his signature Friday, the kids’ privacy bill will take effect Jan. 1.

The California sponsor of a digital equity bill is cautiously optimistic about broadband deployment even with trims to the budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) recommended. The governor last week announced a May budget revision that included taking back promised additional funding for the state’s middle-mile network and eliminating a broadband fund for local governments, totaling a $2 billion reduction from earlier plans (see 2405150035). However, Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D), sponsor of a bill seeking to stop digital discrimination (see 2404230039), recognizes “the tough decisions the administration and legislature must make in order to balance the budget,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “I am reservedly hopeful and appreciative of the administration's active engagement with members of the legislature about the solutions being put forth by the administration to provide for neighborhoods like the ones I represent in the East Bay."

State senators narrowly approved Minnesota open internet rules Wednesday night. The Senate voted 34-32 in favor of a conference committee agreement on a Commerce omnibus (SF-4097), including language on net neutrality and transparency requirements for social media. It next needs a vote from the House, which convenes Friday. The legislature is set to adjourn Monday. Other than for reasonable network management, the bill would bar ISPs from engaging in “blocking lawful content, applications, services, or nonharmful devices,” paid prioritization or “unreasonably interfering with or unreasonably disadvantaging: (i) a customer's ability to select, access, and use broadband Internet service or lawful Internet content, applications, services, or devices of the customer's choice; or (ii) an edge provider's ability to provide lawful Internet content, applications, services, or devices to a customer.” Also, the state bill would ban “engaging in deceptive or misleading marketing practices that misrepresent the treatment of Internet traffic or content” and zero rating “in exchange for consideration, monetary or otherwise, from a third party” or zero rating some internet content in a category but not the entire category. It would be enforced by the state commerce department. The social media section would require platforms to disclose information about algorithms to users, including how they assess users’ perceptions of content quality. The net neutrality and social media rules would take effect July 1, 2025. Minnesota legislators are also weighing a proposed comprehensive privacy law and controversial broadband labor requirements (see 2405070043). Also Wednesday, the Senate voted 36-31 to pass an anti-junk fees bill (HB-3438) that CTIA had opposed for including the wireless industry. The House passed the bill, as negotiated by a conference committee, in a 76-57 vote earlier this week.

Don’t wait to see if Congress finds funding for the affordable connectivity program (ACP), the Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT) urged the California Public Utilities Commission in comments Wednesday. The consumer group supported a petition from The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office to modify a 2022 decision that made rules for the California commission’s federal funding account (FFA), which uses broadband funding from the U.S. government (see 2404150062). The petition “accurately highlights that the current FFA rules will become outdated shortly with the anticipated end of the ACP, and it reasonably requests that the Commission modify the FFA rules to support ongoing broadband affordability,” CforAT said in docket R.20-09-001. “The Commission should not delay based on the efforts currently underway to extend the ACP, as the fate of these efforts is uncertain, and the status quo would result in loss of service for program participants.” The CPUC can hit the brakes should ACP get money, it added. But the telecom industry said granting the petition would delay money going out the door to expand broadband. Also, the industry urged the CPUC to avoid using ACP's possible end as an excuse to relitigate settled issues, echoing comments it made days earlier on a separate TURN petition seeking changes to a different grant program (see 2405140037). Thanks to flexible FFA rules, the CPUC "received an unprecedented amount of interest with over 480 applications and at least two applications per county,” commented AT&T. Granting TURN and PAO’s petition will only further delay awards for the applications that already have been pending for eight months, said the carrier: But the CPUC must make awards by Dec. 24 or send the cash back to the U.S. Frontier Communications said the CPUC should “swiftly deny” the petition. "The Commission should not allow the state’s broadband infrastructure deployment objectives to be diverted or delayed by Petitioners’ agenda to revisit rejected policy proposals addressing affordability." AVX Networks and Cal.net piled on. “There is no reasonable basis to delay FFA awards indefinitely while the Commission considers whether to add a completely new requirement on FFA award recipients,” they said. A group of small rural local exchange carriers agreed. “This Petition would compromise the efficacy of this time-sensitive federal grant program, potentially squandering critical federal support for rural infrastructure deployment and impairing the state’s efforts to close the digital divide,” the LECs said.

Verizon’s Tracfone was chosen as exclusive service provider for California’s next foster-youth pilot program, the California Public Utilities Commission said Wednesday. T-Mobile provided service for an earlier pilot. Tracfone “pledges to meet all requirements of the Foster Youth Pilot, including providing each eligible participant with a smartphone equipped with hotspot capabilities, a charging device, unlimited voice and text messaging, 25 GB of mobile data, and 10 GB of hotspot data, all at no cost to the participant,” Chari Worster, the CPUC’s California LifeLine program and project supervisor, wrote in an email to the service list for docket R.20-02-008. California commissioners unanimously supported the pilot at their meeting last week (see 2405090063).

New York state Democrats supported a bill Tuesday to provide internet access to people in temporary housing. The Senate Social Services Committee cleared the bill (S-4561) on a partisan vote so that it can receive a vote on the Senate floor. The committee's two Republicans were less enthusiastic about the measure, which would require that shelters provide strong Wi-Fi in common and private areas and conspicuously display passwords if required: Dean Murray voted no and Alexis Weik voted “aye without recommendation.” The Senate last year approved the bill by Sen. Kristen Gonzalez (D), but it failed in the other chamber.

The Nebraska Universal Service Fund has had “steady and predictable” remittances since adopting a connections-based contribution mechanism, NUSF Director Cullen Robbins said at a Nebraska Public Service Commission hearing Tuesday, so changes aren't needed. The PSC partly moved away from a revenue-based NUSF contribution in 2018 and expanded the policy in 2021(see 2105110045). The NUSF has a $134 million balance, Robbins said. He noted that the commission is considering a change that would use high-cost support more for operating expenses like maintaining networks as opposed to capital expenses for deployments. One possible benefit is that the fund balance wouldn’t build up as much because support could be paid out monthly, the NUSF director said. At another meeting earlier in the day, Nebraska PSC commissioners voted 5-0 to approve an order issuing the 2024 schedule and application materials for the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program. ISPs may apply for NBBP grants from June 17 through July 8. Under the program, $20 million is available annually for deploying networks capable of at least 100 Mbps symmetrical speeds in unserved and underserved areas. “NBBP has proven to be an effective way to get broadband to unserved and underserved areas of the state, and we are eager to begin the fourth cycle of this program,” Commission Chair Dan Watermeier said in a news release.

The Utah Public Service Commission refused to reconsider its decision not to relieve Lumen’s CenturyLink of carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations. In March, the Utah PSC denied CenturyLink’s original petition in docket 23-049-01 (see 2403180034). On April 11, CenturyLink sought rehearing. But the agency’s three commissioners decided Monday they were right the first time. "CenturyLink has not effectively marshaled the evidence in its Petition and thus has not carried its burden of persuasion,” the commission said. “The errors of fact and law it claims support the exemption largely ignore the persuasive opposing evidence and misconstrue our reasoning.” The Utah PSC added, “While a day may come when CenturyLink is relieved of its COLR obligations, based on the present record, CenturyLink has not carried its burden herein to eliminate this fundamental obligation of the incumbent carrier.” The company didn't "meaningfully contradict or even attempt to explain" the error of the PSC's finding that the carrier provided incomplete evidence showing effective competition, the commission said: CenturyLink didn't show there are functionally equivalent, substitutable and reasonably available alternatives at comparable prices and quality. And the commission disagreed that wholesale broadband can be considered functionally equivalent because it receives funding from Utah USF (UUSF). "The plain language of" Utah Code Section 54-8b-3 "provides no basis for concluding that the wholesale broadband services addressed in the UUSF statute constitute a telecommunications service that is functionally equivalent to, or substitutable for, CenturyLink’s stand-alone voice service." In addition, the record “shows that satellite and broadband services typically only provide voice service as an add-on at an additional cost,” the PSC said. The company’s promise that it will continue serving existing customers doesn’t save the petition for COLR relief, the commission added: "Utah’s population is rapidly growing,” and granting relief “could eliminate the option for customers to have a basic residential voice line if they relocated.” The company can seek Utah Supreme Court review within 30 days. Lumen declined to comment Tuesday.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission granted Lumen’s request to extend its 2018 price plan through Aug. 1. The plan would have expired Wednesday. The carrier needs more time to implement a successor price plan that the PUC approved in February (see 2402090074), said Administrative Law Judge Nolan Moser in an order Monday (docket UM 1908).