The Utah Public Service Commission refused to reconsider its decision not to relieve Lumen’s CenturyLink of carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations. In March, the Utah PSC denied CenturyLink’s original petition in docket 23-049-01 (see 2403180034). On April 11, CenturyLink sought rehearing. But the agency’s three commissioners decided Monday they were right the first time. "CenturyLink has not effectively marshaled the evidence in its Petition and thus has not carried its burden of persuasion,” the commission said. “The errors of fact and law it claims support the exemption largely ignore the persuasive opposing evidence and misconstrue our reasoning.” The Utah PSC added, “While a day may come when CenturyLink is relieved of its COLR obligations, based on the present record, CenturyLink has not carried its burden herein to eliminate this fundamental obligation of the incumbent carrier.” The company didn't "meaningfully contradict or even attempt to explain" the error of the PSC's finding that the carrier provided incomplete evidence showing effective competition, the commission said: CenturyLink didn't show there are functionally equivalent, substitutable and reasonably available alternatives at comparable prices and quality. And the commission disagreed that wholesale broadband can be considered functionally equivalent because it receives funding from Utah USF (UUSF). "The plain language of" Utah Code Section 54-8b-3 "provides no basis for concluding that the wholesale broadband services addressed in the UUSF statute constitute a telecommunications service that is functionally equivalent to, or substitutable for, CenturyLink’s stand-alone voice service." In addition, the record “shows that satellite and broadband services typically only provide voice service as an add-on at an additional cost,” the PSC said. The company’s promise that it will continue serving existing customers doesn’t save the petition for COLR relief, the commission added: "Utah’s population is rapidly growing,” and granting relief “could eliminate the option for customers to have a basic residential voice line if they relocated.” The company can seek Utah Supreme Court review within 30 days. Lumen declined to comment Tuesday.
Supplemental coverage from space service will provide a huge backstop to terrestrial networks' coverage, especially when disasters and emergencies strike terrestrial networks. But SCS also will carry significant challenges for pinpointing callers' locations, speakers said Tuesday at an FCBA CLE.
The Vermont legislature passed bills on privacy and kids’ online safety Friday. After back-and-forth on amendments, the House and Senate agreed to a comprehensive data privacy bill (H-121). While final text wasn’t available Monday, “reports indicate that it has a narrow private right of action focused on data brokers and larger data holders and limited to the bill’s sensitive data and consumer health data provisions,” Husch Blackwell attorney David Stauss blogged. That might be a first among states (see 2403220040). The legislature also agreed to an age-appropriate design code bill (S-289) like the California law. Pouncing immediately, tech industry group NetChoice urged Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) to veto S-289. The bill “would chill lawful speech online and negatively impact Vermont’s vibrant small business community,” wrote NetChoice General Counsel Carl Szabo: “Similar requirements … have already been challenged and are currently enjoined.” Design It For Us, a youth advocacy group that originally campaigned to pass California’s kids code law, applauds the legislature “for working to protect young people from online harms and passing much needed Kids Code legislation despite industry efforts to defeat it,” said co-Chair Zamaan Qureshi in a statement. Accountable Tech, another supporter of such laws, also lauded passage of S-289. “It’s clear that momentum is on the side of young people fighting for safer online spaces as Vermont becomes the third state to pass age-appropriate design code legislation with the Vermont Kids Code,” said Executive Director Nicole Gill.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau on Monday asked for comments June 12, replies July 12, on rules for implementing multilingual wireless emergency alerts. The FCC proposes requiring that providers support template alert messages, “which the Bureau translated into the thirteen most commonly spoken languages in the United States aside from English, and American Sign Language,” the notice said: “The Bureau also seeks comment on whether the templates and their translations are accurate and will be effective at encouraging the public to take protective action during emergencies; whether templates addressing other types of emergencies should be supported; whether ‘form-fillable’ elements can be added to the templates, allowing alert originators to customize the templates with information specific to each emergency; and whether additional languages should be supported.” Comments can be filed in dockets 15-91 and 15-94.
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.