Wireless industry concerns about a Nebraska 911 outage reporting bill irked some state senators during a hearing Tuesday. LB-1256 would add to carriers’ compliance costs, said CTIA Director-State Legislative Affairs Jake Lestock. Also, disclosing confidential wireless outage information to the state could pose privacy and national security risks, he said. The FCC has a good outage reporting system with strong security protection -- and the Nebraska Public Service Commission may access it now, he said. Considering the importance of 911 and several recent Nebraska outages (see 2401230048), Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh (D) finds CTIA’s opposition “flummoxing and unsettling.” Sponsor Sen. Wendy DeBoer (D) said she hadn’t heard prior to the hearing that industry opposed her bill. “I will continue to work on this and make sure we have all the safeguards we need, but this is important,” she said. Nebraska PSC Chair Dan Watermeier (R) supported LB-1256 as an “important accountability and transparency measure.”

The Arizona Senate narrowly passed a bill requiring age verification to protect minors from harmful content online. Senators voted 16-12 Monday to send SB-1125 to Arizona's House. The bill would require websites with pornographic content to verify that users are at least 18, including by comparing IP addresses with a blacklist. Parents could request that their kids be added to the blacklist; ISPs “shall not be under any obligation to confirm” that the requesting internet user “has a minor child,” it said. CTIA in a Jan. 29 letter opposed the bill as technically unworkable. The current bill “misunderstands how IP addresses are used within the internet ecosystem and their infeasibility for identification and age verification,” the wireless association wrote. IP addresses change over time and can be “easily overridden through widely available tools like proxy servers and virtual private networks,” it said. “SB 1125 would impose incredible burdens on ISPs to create an unviable blacklist framework. The regulatory onus should instead be on the content providers that knowingly create and distribute the harmful content to use viable commercial age assurance mechanisms." Also Monday, the Arizona House Appropriations Committee voted 12-0 for a kids' privacy bill (HB-2858) that would prohibit minors younger than 16 from using social media platforms without parental consent. In addition, it would prohibit users older than 18 from sending messages on social media to younger users.

Verizon said it reached and executed a settlement agreement with consumer advocates Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT) and The Utility Reform Network on migrating Tracfone customers still using non-Verizon networks in California, the carrier said last week. Within seven business days, CforAT will attach the agreement to a motion to withdraw its Oct. 6 petition to modify the CPUC’s 2021 decision approving the Verizon/Tracfone deal, Verizon said in a Thursday email to California Public Utilities Commission Administrative Law Judge Thomas Glegola. The email was shared with the service list for docket A.20-11-001.

The Vermont Public Utility Commission announced a March 7 hearing on Consolidated Communications' transfer of indirect ownership and control of its local subsidiaries to Condor Holdings, a subsidiary of private equity firm Searchlight. Consolidated will present the deal at 6:30 p.m. and a public hearing will follow, said a Thursday notice in docket 23-4353-PET. Under a schedule released Feb. 2, non-petitioners must file direct testimony by May 3 and the company must file a rebuttal by June 14. More briefs will be due three weeks after an evidentiary hearing planned for July 10-11. Reply briefs would be due two weeks after briefs are filed.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission will soon seek more data and schedule additional meetings and workshops as part of a pole-attachments proceeding (docket 2023-00300), the PUC informed Maine lawmakers last week. The commission sent legislators an interim report Thursday, as a 2023 state law required. The PUC is required to study pole-attachment requirements’ effect on broadband expansion. The interim report describes the history of pole attachments in Maine, commission efforts over the past decade to update rules and comments received in the current proceeding. The Maine PUC said it lacks "specific recommendations or suggested legislation at this time.” In comments last month, cable companies urged the PUC to quickly align the state’s Chapter 880 pole-attachment rules with the FCC’s December order (see 2401160035). A final report is due Dec. 1.

The Florida House unanimously supported extending a $1 promotion for broadband attachments through 2028. Members voted 119-0 Thursday to approve HB-1147, which would let ISPs continue to pay $1 a year per wireline attachment per pole to bring broadband to unserved or underserved areas in municipal electric utility service territories (see 2402080006). Florida began offering the rate in 2021; it will expire July 1 unless extended. The Florida Senate plans to vote on the similar SB-1218 on Thursday.

AT&T’s California application for relief of carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations attracted interest from Congress last week. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., raised concerns about the request in a Wednesday letter to California Public Utilities Commission President Alice Reynolds. Schiff wrote "the withdrawal of AT&T landlines will not only harm consumer choice but also pose safety issues in California.” In fires, earthquakes and other natural disasters, “our landlines become the most dependable form of communication,” he added. “While wireless connection is unreliable and cell phones can run out of battery, copper landlines have stronger receptions during power outages.” Schiff cited Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) data that more than 580,000 affected AT&T customers would be left with few options. “AT&T’s proposed withdrawal would harm rural residents disproportionately and the CPUC should weigh this factor heavily in its review of their application to end their COLR obligation,” Schiff wrote. Others from Capitol Hill could weigh in on the CPUC proceeding (docket A.23-03-003). RCRC saw “a lot of interest in this subject” when its delegation visited congressional offices earlier this month, Senior Legislative Advocate Tracy Rhine told us Thursday. Yet an AT&T spokesperson said Friday it will not leave customers behind, though millions have already moved to wireless and high-speed internet services. “We’re working with the remaining consumers who use traditional copper-based phone service to upgrade to newer technologies from us or other providers, so everyone will still be able to make their most important life connections.”

NTIA accepted Maine's digital equity plan, making it the first state gaining approval, the federal agency said Thursday. Maine received $542,222 for its plan that addresses disparities in digital access, skills and affordability.

A Florida Senate committee combined House bills requiring age verification for those accessing social media (HB-1) and pornography (HB-3). At a Thursday hearing, the Fiscal Policy Committee on a voice vote approved an amendment that inserts the text of HB-3 into HB-1 and makes other changes. Then the panel cleared the amended bill. The Senate could vote on the bill Wednesday. Opposing the bill in committee, Sen. Geri Thompson (D) said legislators’ role is education, not censorship. Sen. Shev Johnson (D) said it’s not lawmakers’ role to parent the parents, and the bill doesn’t pass legal muster. Added Sen. Lori Berman (D), HB-1 has many practical problems, including that it would force adults to verify their age on many websites and its breadth could bar children from accessing educational sites. Yet Sen. Erin Grall (R), who is shepherding HB-1 in the Senate, said Florida isn’t suggesting it knows better than parents. The state is narrowly responding to an identified harm, she said. "This is a bill about not targeting our children in order to manipulate them." The new version of HB-1 continues to propose prohibiting children younger than 16 from having social media accounts regardless of parental consent but no longer would require social websites to disclose social media's possible mental health problems to those 16-18. The amended bill allows enforcement by the attorney general and through a private right of action. Other changes to bill definitions could mean that young people will also be banned from Amazon, LinkedIn and news websites, said Maxx Fenning, executive director of PRISM, an LGBTQ rights group in Florida. In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union opposed the bill. Banning kids younger than 16 even with their parents' consent "shows that the claim of parental rights of the last two legislative sessions had nothing to do with parental rights and everything to do with government censorship of viewpoints and information that government doesn't like,” ACLU-Florida Legislative Director Kara Gross said.

The South Dakota Senate will vote again on a 911 bill that failed to pass the chamber Wednesday. Senators voted 28-3 on Thursday to reconsider Wednesday's vote, which HB-1092 lost. Then the Senate voted by voice for a motion to reconsider the bill Feb. 26. The House-approved bill would increase South Dakota’s 911 fee on monthly phone bills to $2, from $1.25 (see 2402090055). But on the floor Wednesday, the bill failed to get a two-thirds majority necessary to pass the Senate, with 21 senators voting yes and 11 voting no. Sen. Jean Hunhoff (R) raised a procedural concern that the state’s 911 coordination board didn’t recommend the increase. Sen. Ryan Maher (R) objected to rewarding problems at the board with a $7.5 million tax increase for South Dakotans. The proposed fee increase won’t cover 911 centers' shortfall, said Sen. Brent Hoffman (R). He questioned why prepaid wireless wouldn’t face an increase under the bill. Sen. Jim Mehlhaff (R), carrying the bill in the Senate, said the surcharge hasn’t kept up with rising 911 costs. Don’t punish local public safety answering points for problems at the state 911 board, he said. In addition, Mehlhaff argued that prepaid wireless appropriately pays 2% of the point-of-sale cost. On the floor Thursday, Sen. Casey Crabtree (R) said the extension will give legislators time to work through the concerns raised in Wednesday's debate.