The California Public Utilities Commission will consider a proposed decision Thursday to temporarily freeze the state LifeLine specific support amount (SSA) for wireline and wireless providers. AT&T and others didn't persuade the CPUC to set the freeze at a higher amount if it ultimately adopted the freeze. The SSA for wireline and wireless providers would be frozen at $19 per month for two years beginning Jan. 1 or until a new methodology is adopted (see 2411220031).

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation arguments against publicly owned broadband networks (see 2412020039) reach a "laughable conclusion" that such systems don't address market failures, American Association for Public Broadband Executive Director Gigi Sohn said Monday. "Tell that to the tens of millions of U.S. households that cannot access, afford, or use a broadband connection," Sohn said. "Community broadband networks have arisen because big cable and telecom companies refuse to serve some communities with affordable and robust broadband." Sohn said ITIF's report is "full of weasel words and meaningless phrases" and ignores the huge public spending and in-kind contributions that have benefited those companies.

Local governments should reject calls to establish government-owned broadband networks (GON), said a new Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) report released Monday. The group evaluated the "finances, regulatory status, and economic sustainability" of 20 GONs and found that favoring these networks "wastes societal resources, creates unfair competition, and is frequently unsustainable in the long run." Local governments "are not well equipped to build and operate broadband networks and are likely to waste the resources they employ," ITIF said. Although acknowledging GONs have a role in broadband deployment, the group urged that officials refrain from "selective deployment or cherry-picking" GONs over private ISPs to prevent overbuilding.

An all-time high of 11.6 million notices of data breaches were sent to citizens of Washington state from July 24, 2023, to July 23, 2024, beating the previous record of 6.5 million in 2021, according to an annual report from Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) Tuesday. Businesses reported 112 of the year’s 279 breaches in the state, with communications firms sending the most notices to consumers: 3.4 million. A mega breach of Comcast was responsible for 3.1 million of them. This is the first time that the number of individual notices of breaches has exceeded the state’s population and is the highest number of citizen breaches affected. “The more people know about data breaches, the more they can protect themselves,” Ferguson said in a news release. Retail had the most data breach incidents, at 20, sending 88,000 consumers notices. A cyberattack was the most common way data breaches occurred, with 217 instances, said the report. Ten were the result of either theft or a mistake, and 52 happened when an unauthorized person accessed secure data through something like an unsecured network or left sensitive documents out on a desk. Ransom was behind 113 of the cyberattacks; malware, 31; phishing, nine; skimming -- using a malicious card reader on a payment terminal, two. “These statistics further underscore our state’s critical need for comprehensive data privacy regulation,” Ferguson said in the report. “Data breaches are symptomatic of gaps in data privacy policies and the standards and practices of every entity that collects or controls this information.”

The West Virginia Public Service Commission extended until July 29 the due date for its administrative law judges to make a decision about the state E-911 Council's complaint against Frontier Communications (see 2401170009). The PSC said in an order Tuesday in docket 23-0921-T-C that staff sought additional time to investigate the issue.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission cleared Consolidated Communications to consolidate 135 rate centers into one in an effort to extend the life of the state’s 207 area code, the commission said Tuesday. It would be the largest consolidation of its kind in any state, the Maine PUC said. Commissioners voted 3-0 during a webcast meeting to approve the maneuver, whose aim is reducing demand for numbering resources and allowing telcos to use more existing resources (docket 2023-00009). Consolidated expects to complete the consolidation by the end of 2025, and it doesn’t “appear there will be significant technical hurdles or complications for other carriers,” said commission Chair Philip Bartlett. “With this, we think we can potentially extend the 207 area code well into the future, perhaps indefinitely.” Bartlett directed staff to provide regular updates about implementation. Commissioner Patrick Scully applauded the decision as “one of the biggest successes we’ve had so far in this long effort to preserve the 207 area code” and a “nation-leading effort” that other states could seek to replicate. The Maine PUC previously said that the planned rate center consolidation could be a model as the U.S. faces possible number exhaustion in the next 25 years (see 2309220060).

The Utah Public Service Commission in a Monday order opened a review of Frontier's sale of assets to Verizon. The PSC wants comments and oppositions to the deal by Dec. 20 (see 2410160049).

Industry groups generally welcomed the Nebraska Public Service Commission's proposal to further refine the Nebraska USF distribution, according to comments posted Tuesday (docket NUSF-139). Charter urged the commission "not to overlook any existing source of revenue or cash flows" that Nebraska eligible telecom carriers (NETC) "obtain from or for their networks in measuring those NETCs’ need for support" (see 2411060036). Windstream suggested that the commission continue relying on CostQuest's broadband mapping data for future updates to its cost modeling. The Rural Telecom Coalition of Nebraska backed the proposal but noted an error in the methodology. "The commission should disregard 2023 support amounts received or paid in 2024 because it creates a mismatching in the company's support base going forward," the group said. The Nebraska Rural Broadband Alliance suggested reducing support until providers serving customers with 25/3 Mbps speeds "complete the commitment to complete 100/20 deployment."

Google Fiber has extended into Idaho, starting in Pocatello, with plans for additional expansion, GF Manager-Government and Community Affairs West Region Alberto Garcia blogged Monday.

Pennsylvania is open for BEAD grant applications, the state Broadband Development Authority said Friday. The broadband office said it will accept applications through Jan. 21 for its $1.16 billion allocation from NTIA. Also, the state plans mounting a second application period in 2025, it said. The broadband office said it will take questions during a virtual office hour on Dec. 11. Pennsylvania is the 10th state to open for BEAD applications, the office said. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said his administration “is moving quickly to solicit applications and drive out this historic funding so we can extend access to high-speed, affordable internet all across our Commonwealth by the end of this decade.”