A possible shakeup of Vermont's universal service passed the legislature Thursday. The House concurred with the Senate’s amendment to HB-657. Rather than the current 2% revenue-based state Universal Service Fund mechanism, the bill would assess 72 cents monthly per retail access line, including VoIP and postpaid wireless (see 2404030046. Also, the bill would add the 988 mental health hotline to a list of what state USF may support and repeal Vermont taxes on telephone personal property and alternative telephone gross revenue. However, the Senate removed a proposed fee structure for communications facilities using state right of way that was in the version originally passed by the House. Instead, the Senate amendment orders a Transportation secretary study on the subject, due Oct. 15, 2025. Gov. Phil Scott (R) must sign the bill before it can become law.
The Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday plans to mark up legislation that would regulate kids’ social media use, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., announced Friday.
The California Public Utilities Commission set next steps for foster youth and broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) programs through two 4-0 votes at a livestreamed meeting Thursday. The vote on extending the CPUC’s current foster youth pilot program beyond July came after multiple delays as the agency and stakeholders considered how to ensure a seamless transition. And even with the first volume of California’s BEAD plan done, much work remains to achieve maximum broadband across the state, California commissioners said.
Disney's entertainment streaming business -- not counting ESPN+ -- reaching profitability in the company's most-recent quarter "is a huge milestone for Disney and for the entire studio streaming ecosystem," Ampere Analysis' Guy Bisson wrote Tuesday. That $47 million operating profit came two quarters earlier than Disney predicted the entire direct-to-consumer business would reach profitability, he said. Disney was the only major studio to go so far with streaming, pulling back key content for its streaming platform, and "there is no going back from here," Bisson said. The move to profitability -- with other studios likely to follow in coming quarters -- "takes a huge amount of downward pressure off content spend," Bisson said. Streamers are moving to a "mix and match approach" of offering their originals while also seeking high-quality titles to license, he said. With linear viewing in decline, and spending on ads shifting to streaming, increased streaming profitability could accelerate that shift, he said. "As the 'proof of concept' is now signed, sealed and delivered, the industry will move even faster to transition away from traditional outlets."
The FCC’s digital discrimination broadband order “is illegal on at least three grounds,” the Pacific Legal Foundation and the Washington Legal Foundation said in an 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court amicus brief Tuesday (docket 24-1179). The brief supports the 20 industry petitioners that seek to vacate the order as unlawful (see 2404230032). When Congress grants lawmaking authority to a federal agency, it must lay down by legislative act an intelligible principle to which the agency can conform, according to the brief. Section 60506 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directs the FCC to adopt rules that facilitate equal access to broadband, including by preventing digital discrimination of access based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion or national origin, it said. The industry petitioners “persuasively explain” that Section 60506's language doesn’t permit the FCC to implement disparate impact liability, it said. But if it did, then that language violates the nondelegation doctrine by failing to provide an intelligible principle governing such liability, it said. “Virtually any action that a regulated entity can take will have a disparate impact along one or more dimensions of income level, race, ethnicity, color, or religion,” said the brief. That’s especially true because of the inclusion of income level, “which means that any decision by a covered entity lowering or raising prices will have a disparate impact based on income and thus come within the FCC’s enforcement authority,” it said. The authority to promulgate disparate impact rules “is a major question to which Congress is required to speak clearly,” it said. Because Congress didn’t speak “clearly to this particular question” in the statute, the FCC’s order is “invalid,” it said. The order also requires covered entities to “treat people differently based on race, in violation of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection,” it said.
A new bid by Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and other senators to attach stopgap funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and additional money for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to the FAA Reauthorization Act (see 2405070083) faces resistance from chamber leaders. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other leaders are skeptical about including nongermane language in the FAA package. A previous proposal to attach ACP money drew opposition during a Tuesday night “hotline” that Senate leaders ran to gauge lawmakers’ support for amendments in the package.
Minnesota won’t craft a law that might put the state's $652 million allocation from NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program in jeopardy, Senate Broadband Committee Chair Aric Putnam (D) pledged shortly after midnight Tuesday. Up late considering a labor budget bill that included an industry-opposed broadband safety proposal, senators voted 35-32 to reject amendments from Sen. Gene Dornink (R) that would have scrapped the worker safety plan.
The American Civil Rights Project supports the 20 industry petitioners arguing that the 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court should vacate the FCC’s digital discrimination broadband rule since it runs afoul of the law and isn’t based on clear congressional intent (see 2404230032), according to the nonprofit’s amicus brief. It was filed Wednesday in docket 24-1179.
The FCC should rein in its Enforcement Bureau to avoid conflicts with recent and expected U.S. Supreme Court decisions, though the current bureau doesn’t “overreach” as frequently as it did under former Chairman Tom Wheeler, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said Thursday during a Wiley panel discussion called “Opportunities to Reform FCC Enforcement." Carr told us, “The jury is still out” on whether the EB under FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel needs reform, he said in an interview after the panel discussion: “We’re not off the rails the way the agency was during the Wheeler tenure."
Providers see no need to continue a Massachusetts probe into incarcerated people’s calling services (IPCS), they said in reply comments Tuesday at the Department of Telecommunications and Cable (docket 11-16). The state made IPCS calls free last year (see 2308090063), “resolving any rate-related issues that Petitioners originally claimed justified initiation of the investigation,” said Securus. “Petitioners’ unverified equipment availability concerns and related complaints seek to raise new issues that do not warrant continuation of this proceeding.” ViaPath agreed that the free calls law means the proceeding should end. However, in March 27 comments, petitioners -- who identified themselves as recipients of collect calls from prisoners -- flagged continuing problems with prison communications after the 2023 law. “Concerns remain that the infrastructure provided by [IPCS] providers must be sufficient to account for increased calling volume with free calls." For example, the group hasn’t verified that calling-enabled tablets are available everywhere, petitioners said. Also, some have complained about the quality of Wi-Fi and headphones provided with Securus tablets, it said.