A Washington state digital equity bill cleared the House Community and Economic Development Committee with an amendment, at a virtual hearing Tuesday. The panel voted 8-5 for HB-1723, which would set up state programs to provide reduced voice and broadband rates for low-income people and to give discounts on telecom service rates and infrastructure costs for anchor institutions. It would establish a grant program for digital equity planning by local governments, higher education and workforce development councils. The committee agreed to an amendment removing a proposed requirement that the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission determine the reduced broadband rates, while modifying some definitions and making other technical tweaks. Ranking member Matt Boehnke was the only Republican voting yes. He said other committee Republicans wanted to narrow the bill and had funding questions. Earlier at the hearing, the committee heard testimony on HB-1729 to establish a blockchain work group including industry and regulators. It would help grow the state’s blockchain sector, said Molly Jones, Washington Technology Industry Association vice president-public policy. Mayor Lynne Robinson of Bellevue, Washington, also backed the bill. Lt. Gov. Denny Heck (D) supports the concept, but his office has too few staff to set up the working group, said David Bremer, a director in Heck’s office. Chair Cindy Ryu (D) promised to work with him.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
“Broadband is an essential service and is not yet accessible to all Californians,” said new California Public Utilities Commission President Alice Reynolds at her first CPUC meeting Thursday. Reynolds, who replaced now-retired Marybel Batjer (see 2112160064), is “very excited” about recently announced state and federal funding, “and the commission has an important role going forward to help communities both rural and urban that have been left behind for too long,” she said virtually. “We must work with local and tribal governments, consumer advocates and the public to build networks that provide modern, affordable and reliable broadband service that is future-proof, lasting for decades to come.” Reynolds showed “she is committed to continue the groundbreaking work being undertaken in California to extend high quality, affordable and reliable broadband to everyone in our state,” emailed Regina Costa, The Utility Reform Network telecom director: “We are very pleased that she values the collaboration with consumer advocates, Tribes, the public and local governments.” Also at the meeting, CPUC commissioners voted 4-0 to adopt a consent agenda including a proposed resolution (T-17758) to adopt $34.6 million in California High Cost Fund-A support for 2022. The funding goes to CalTel and nine other small LECs. The CPUC is down to four commissioners because former member Martha Guzman Aceves left to become administrator of EPA Region 9.
State privacy bills are surfacing quickly as legislatures return for 2022 sessions. Washington state Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D) will try for the fourth straight year to pass a privacy bill, and many other state legislators introduced bills this and last week. Experts are also watching California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) implementation this year.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is open to renewing, at least temporarily, an interim change to the state USF contribution method. At a livestreamed meeting Tuesday, OCC members reviewed the state’s November’s shift to a connections-based mechanism. Commissioner Todd Hiett reserved his right to support moving back to revenue-based reporting if he doesn’t see progress on legislative changes.
Carriers resisted a California Public Utilities Commission staff proposal to apply a utility affordability framework to telecom services through the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). Don't adopt a staff proposal to apply affordability metrics to essential communications services “because the purpose of this proceeding should be to develop the metrics, not apply them,” AT&T commented Monday in docket R.18-07-006: The CPUC "lacks jurisdiction to set prices for wireless and broadband services” and consumers can get affordable broadband through the new federal affordable connectivity program. California lacks wireless jurisdiction and the CPUC addresses affordability through the state LifeLine program, said CTIA: competition keeps wireless service cheap. Applying the staff proposal "to communications services that are not rate-regulated telecommunications services would run counter to the Staff’s goal to bridge the digital divide,” said the California Cable and Telecommunications Association. "The Commission has expressly abstained from regulating the intrastate rates of nearly all competitive voice service providers” and “is precluded by law from regulating broadband prices, which are controlled by a competitive market.” CalTel and other small rural LECs agreed the agency lacks broadband authority. Limit using the metrics “to informing consumers in the Commission’s annual affordability report” and in the commission’s LifeLine proceeding, they said. Communications services mostly aren't rate-regulated, but the CPUC should consider affordability when providers submit merger and other kinds of applications, commented the Center for Accessible Technology. Applying an affordability framework could help the CPUC identify broadband projects for state funding, said the National Diversity Coalition. The Utility Reform Network agreed with CPUC staff that CASF could benefit from incorporating affordability metrics, but added that the commission should incorporate the framework in all of its communications decision-making processes. The agency should revise its proposal so the metric is used to “analyze affordability generally” rather than set prices for low-income broadband plans, said the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office.
Eversource “can’t keep up” with a growing “avalanche” of pole attachment requests under the state’s current cost structure, said Assistant General Counsel Vincent Pace at a Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) virtual hearing Monday. With increasing broadband demand, the utility expects 70,000 attachment requests this year, up from 4,600 in 2016, he said. The company spent $11 million last year for operation and maintenance costs and $19 million capital for make-ready work, he said: In 2022, it expects $19 million and $32 million, respectively. “We just do not have the resources to meet this level of work, and unless we have a different framework in place, the effort to expand broadband will simply be frustrated.” Eversource suggests that pole attachers cover a larger share of costs. Communications attachers that trigger pole make-ready work “should pay for their proportionate share using cost-causation principles.” Owners should be able to use a portion of pole rental revenue to pay for the work, he said: Currently, any increase in annual rental revenue goes back to electric customers. Eversource plans to explore if federal infrastructure dollars can be used to fund work; attachers should do the same, he said. “After exhausting all these steps, if the work is still not funded, we propose to defer the amount for PURA’s review at the time of our next rate case.” Eversource doesn’t object to adopting the FCC’s approach to one-touch, make-ready. Stakeholders commented last month in the same docket (19-01-52RE01).
The omicron variant is the latest test for already stretched-thin 911 centers managing with the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency call officials told us last week. Public safety answering point (PSAP) professionals said staff taking sick leave is the main challenge. PSAPs are more prepared than they were at the beginning of the pandemic but are also experiencing higher-than-normal staffing issues amid a national trend of workers quitting jobs in the “Great Resignation,” said National Emergency Number Association (NENA) 911 and PSAP Operations Director April Heinze in an interview.
New York state will give broadband grants to municipalities as part of a $1 billion initiative announced Wednesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in a State of the State address. The “ConnectALL” effort will empower local municipalities and state agencies to set up nation-leading broadband infrastructure statewide,” Hochul said in a news release. A new broadband office will direct three grant programs, including one that will provide funding to municipalities, nonprofits and others to build open public broadband infrastructure, the governor’s office said. A second program will provide matching grants, plus federal infrastructure dollars, to support last-mile and middle-mile broadband in rural areas; a third will provide competitive grants for connectivity pilot programs, it said. The New York Department of Public Service will develop a broadband map and lead a marketing effort to increase participation in the $30 monthly federal broadband subsidy program, and other state agencies will seek to retrofit affordable housing projects with broadband, Hochul’s office said. The state will develop a digital equity plan and grant program, with a director to be appointed to spearhead those efforts, it said. The state plans regulatory changes including eliminating state use and occupancy fees, streamlining the make-ready process and standardizing right-of-way access for wireless and fiber deployments, the office said. Also, a planned pilot will use existing state fiber to support middle mile, it said. "It is extremely exciting to see New York specifically encourage publicly owned open broadband infrastructure," emailed Christopher Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance director-community broadband networks. "The communities that need these funds have often waited the longest for high-quality Internet access and they may soon have some of the best access at the lowest prices in the state." New York Public Utility Law Project is "heartened" by Hochul's broadband focus, especially with COVID-19 "imperiling in-person schooling and threatening potential closures again," emailed Executive Director Richard Berkley: The state has more than a million homes without fast internet "and many more households with substandard and expensive broadband." CTIA Senior Vice President-State Affairs Jamie Hastings said Hochul's announcement "recognizes the important role of wireless in helping to close the digital divide."
Ex-NARUC President Paul Kjellander will retire Dec. 31 from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, he told us Tuesday. After nearly 20 years with the PUC, he will pursue independent contract work, initially in energy, though he isn’t ruling out telecom work, he said. The commissioner had one year left in his term. He will depart NARUC’s board and executive committee but still plans to attend NARUC meetings including Feb. 13-16 in Washington, D.C., he said. Gov. Brad Little (R) would need to appoint a replacement in the new year, the commissioner said. State commissioners’ telecom role “has evolved significantly since I started as a regulator,” the former NARUC Telecom Committee chair said. “I actually am one of the few regulators left -- at least for another week -- who understands the old legacy form of regulation.” Kjellander said he now sees a big “nexus” among the telecom, energy and water sectors, and a “huge opportunity” coming up to use federal infrastructure funding for broadband and advanced communications.
Subscription-based companies should watch a growing field of state automatic renewal laws, said business lawyers in interviews this month. Colorado and Delaware laws take effect Jan. 1, joining states including California and New York. With a recent explosion of streaming and other online subscription services, consumer groups support rules and enforcement for more transparency on renewal policies.