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Mo. Legislators Offer 5G, Streaming, Social Media Bills
January 4, 2024 |State Telecom

Missouri legislators introduced a flurry of telecom and internet bills before their 2024 session started Wednesday. Rep. Chad Perkins (R) pitched HB-1995 to delete the Jan. 1, 2025, sunset date for the state’s 2018 small-cells law (see 1806040050), which preempted local governments on right of way in an effort to streamline 5G infrastructure deployment. Rep. Ben Keathley (R) offered HB-2057, clarifying that streaming content is exempted from paying video franchise fees. Two other bills would relieve broadband’s tax obligations. HB-2142 by Rep. Ben Baker (R) would provide a tax deduction for broadband grant funds for 2022 and later tax years. HB-2168 by Rep. Aaron McMullen (R) would provide sales and use-tax exemptions for machinery and equipment that provides broadband, starting Jan. 1, 2025. Another Baker bill would ban Missouri government employees from using or downloading on a state-owned device "any social media application that is owned, in whole or in part, by the Chinese government or any company that shares its user’s data with the Chinese Communist Party.” HB-2141, which would cover TikTok, wouldn’t "apply to military or law enforcement agencies when doing so is in keeping with the fulfillment of their duties." Rep. Josh Hurlbert (R) seeks to ban TikTok on school district-owned devices and district-provided internet access. In addition, the bill would halt use of the specified social media application(s) to "promote any district school, school-sponsored club, extracurricular organization, or athletic team." HB-2157 would also require social media companies to verify users' ages and restrict minors from opening accounts without parental consent. Moreover, it would restrict them from using "a practice, design, or feature" that they know, or reasonably should know, "causes a Missouri minor account holder to have an addiction to the social media platform." The bill includes a private right of action and state attorney general enforcement. It would also require school districts to develop internet safety policies.

N.H. PUC Asked to Clear Consolidated/Searchlight Deal
January 3, 2024 |State Telecom

The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission should OK Consolidated Communications' transfer of indirect ownership and control of its northern New England and Maine subsidiaries to Condor Holdings, a subsidiary of private equity firm Searchlight, Condor and Consolidated said last week in a petition at the PUC (docket DT 23-103). The subsidiaries would continue to own their respective New Hampshire franchise, works and system after the deal is complete, it said. The agreement wouldn't “involve the transfer of the [Consolidated subsidiaries] to a new utility but instead is structured as a change of ownership at the holding company level and will not affect any of the operations or legal identities of the [subsidiaries].”

Mississippi Proposes Broadband Awards
January 2, 2024 |State Telecom

The Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) on Friday unveiled its decisions on an initial round of funding from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund. BEAM asked for public comments or objections through Jan. 22. The office proposed awards of more than $112 million to 66,328 “eligible locations” throughout the state.