South Dakota could increase a 911 fee on monthly phone bllls to $2, from $1.25. The House Taxation Committee voted 9-4 for HB-1092 on Tuesday. The bill would clarify that revenue from the fee “must” be used for 911.

The Florida House supported removing kids younger than 16 from social media platforms in a 106-13 bipartisan vote Wednesday. Lawmakers approved HB-1 one day after rejecting an amendment that would have allowed parents to choose whether their children may use social media (see 2401230078). The bill now goes to the Senate. If the upper chamber approves it and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signs it, social media companies would need to terminate kids’ accounts July 1. "These companies know what they are doing is wrong,” said sponsor Rep. Tyler Sirois (R). “They have not acted … In Florida, we will.” The state government must step in to protect children from online threats, bullying and crime, agreed co-sponsor Rep. Fiona McFarland (R): Companies won’t self-police and the federal government isn’t acting. Most of the House’s 36 Democrats voted for HB-1, though several raised concerns in floor debate. Judiciary Committee ranking member Michael Gottlieb (D) doesn't oppose regulating social media but dislikes HB-1’s “very broad brush,” he said. "What we're saying is essentially that kids don't have the right to assemble," which the First Amendment protects. "When we take that from somebody" it must be through the "least restrictive means,” said Gottlieb. Rep. Daryl Campbell (D) said the bill’s intent “sounds good,” but it’s “complete governmental overreach” to tell parents they’re not fit to make the best decision for their children. Saying the bill is unconstitutional, Rep. Ashley Gantt (D) asked when Florida will stop telling parents that lawmakers know better. But Democrat Rep. Michele Rayner asked how lawmakers can tell parents that the First Amendment is more important than their child’s life. Rep. Kevin Chambless (D) said that "for every success story" on social media, there is "a negative story of exploitation." Rep. Katherine Waldron (D) said that while HB-1 “may not be popular among those 16 or under -- or perhaps among some parents -- the positives will far outweigh the negatives.”

The Washington state House Innovation Committee heard testimony Tuesday on broadband legislation, HB 2313. The bill assigns additional duties to the state Office of Equity, said Emily Pool, a committee staffer. The office “is tasked with continuing to develop and also maintain the state equity plan, and the office must also undertake the outreach effort” being conducted by the Statewide Broadband Office, Pool said. This includes assisting consumers and enrolling them in broadband and digital equity programs, she said. Rep. Mia Gregerson (D), who sponsored the bill, said she was focused on digital equity since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill updates the state’s initial broadband equity act, Gregerson said. “With anything as big as this you always really need to come back and have that time to understand what has happened" and “how far have we come forward,” she said. Most testimony supported approval of the legislation.

South Carolina’s House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday advanced a pair of age-verification bills to the floor (see 2401180027). Both bills passed the committee unanimously with a handful of members not voting. H-4700, which would require parental consent for minors younger than 18 to access social media, passed 21-0-4. H-3424, meant to keep kids off pornographic websites, passed 20-0-5.

The Florida Senate Commerce Committee unanimously supported a bill to extend dollar broadband attachments through 2028. Tuesday's committee OK means the full Senate could soon vote on SB-1218, which would extend a promotional rate that the state began offering in 2021 to let ISPs pay $1 a year per wireline attachment per pole to bring broadband to unserved or underserved areas in municipal electric utility service territories. The promo will expire July 1 unless extended. A House subcommittee cleared a similar bill (HB-1147) last week (see 2401190064).

Five states rely too much on fiber in their broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program plans, Wireless ISP Association CEO David Zumwalt said Tuesday in a letter to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. California, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and New York will likely exhaust BEAD funds before connecting all unserved and underserved locations, warned Zumwalt: NTIA should direct the states to alter their proposals before the federal agency approves them. More than a dozen other state plans indicate they may lack money for non-deployment activities including digital equity projects, the wireless industry group’s CEO added: States could address the funding gap by deploying fixed wireless networks and setting an “appropriately low” extremely high cost per location threshold. Also, Zumwalt raised concerns with states that require up to five years of audited financial statements before applying for funds, “a gating criteria that will foreclose participation by many smaller broadband providers.”

New York's Senate could vote again soon on a wireless tower bill that would require cellphone companies and third-party infrastructure firms to submit plans for powering their towers with 100% renewable energy by 2031. The Senate Telecom Committee cleared S-4305 at a livestreamed hearing Tuesday. Ranking member Mario Mattera (R) voted no. Senators approved the bill last year (see 2303220031), but New York's Assembly never addressed it, so S-4305 returned to the Senate.

Nebraska will expand a Windstream 911 probe to include a January outage and outages occurring while docket 911-076 is open, the Nebraska Public Service Commission decided 5-0 Tuesday. “The Commission is concerned with what appears to be a growing pattern of repeated 911 outages on Windstream’s network affecting southeast Nebraska” public safety answering points, said the PSC order, which noted that three outages occurred during a five-month period. Also, commissioners unanimously supported a precision agriculture order setting a process for states grants (docket C-5529). The PSC will make more than $906,000 available for the 2023-2024 fiscal year starting July 1, with half the money for connectivity and the rest for devices and technology, it said. The PSC will run annual grant cycles with awards on or before June 30 each year, the order said. For the 2024 cycle, applications are due Feb. 23 and awards will be released by April 30, it said. "The grant program is another opportunity to advance precision agriculture in our state with much-needed connectivity and supporting technology,” said Nebraska PSC Chair Dan Watermeier. “We look forward to seeing the innovative projects submitted through the application process.” Also, the commission voted 5-0 for a TRS order to open docket C-5555 and hold a hearing March 19 at 1:30 p.m. CDT to determine the surcharge for the fiscal year starting July 1. Windstream experienced a 52-minute evening outage Jan. 13 in southeast Nebraska due to "two unrelated but overlapping network events," a spokesperson wrote in an email. "First, there was a fiber cut between Lincoln and Denver that took down one of our two network paths into and out of Nebraska." That damage didn't cause an outage, but before the telco could repair it, an unrelated event between Lincoln and Chicago "took down our second network path into and out of the state," the spokesperson said. "Service [was] restored when the fiber cut on the Lincoln-Denver path was repaired."

It’s time that Maine rate centers combine, Consolidated Communications said in comments Friday at the Maine Public Utilities Commission. The PUC received comments in docket 2023-00009 about next steps on a proposal that would save the state’s 207 area code from number exhaustion by combining Consolidated's multiple rate centers into one (see 2309220060). Stop treating Consolidated like "a petitioner trying to seek relief,” the company said as other parties requested additional information about the plan. Consolidated said it "has been treated as though it bears the burden of proving that the proposal to help preserve the area code is in the public good, while the truth is the Commission has already made that determination." Other parties seek more detail despite offering no "concrete reason why it is problematic," said the telco: Consolidated lacks additional information and “cannot continue to spend time and resources on a project that was initiated to assist the Commission and the state and that is not a corporate priority.” Comcast sought an updated timeline with more detail on "required steps during the final implementation stage.” The PUC should seek input from the North American numbering plan administrator, it added. The Telecommunications Association of Maine requested direct talks between its members and Consolidated "to discuss the implementation, changes and concerns associated with the contemplated rate center consolidation.” Maine’s Office of the Public Advocate asked the PUC to make Consolidated file “a quantitative description of costs including possible operational efficiencies and long-term operational cost savings, and how Consolidated would plan to recover the costs for the work."

Nebraska must close the “spigot” and stop using state USF to support old telecom networks that provide internet speeds slower than 100 Mbps symmetrical, said Sen. Bruce Bostelman (R) at the legislature’s Telecommunications Committee hearing Monday. Bostelman’s LB-1031 would end Nebraska USF support for maintaining slower networks starting July 1, 2025. In 2021, Nebraska made 100 Mbps symmetrical the standard for new projects but continued allowing funding for operating existing networks with at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds, said Bostelman: Three years later, there’s no reason to give telcos more time to replace copper networks with fiber. LB-1031 would slow Consolidated Communications' broadband deployment by funding only areas with 100% fiber, said Brian Thompson, vice president-external relations. The panel continued to hear testimony on LB-1031 after our deadline. Earlier in the hearing, Nebraska Broadband Director Patrick Haggerty told state lawmakers that his office hopes to hear “at least a verbal approval” from NTIA this week on volume one of its initial proposal for the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. The state broadband office resubmitted volume 1 Friday with changes recommended by NTIA, said Haggerty: Nebraska can begin its challenge process once NTIA clears that volume.