California Assembly members voted 60-0 for more telecom outage reporting Wednesday. SB-341 by Sen. Mike McGuire (D) would direct the Office of Emergency Services to adopt rules for public mapping telecom outages and share information with the California Public Utilities Commission. The bill would require telecom providers that provide 911 access to post outage maps on their websites and codify recent CPUC 72-hour backup power requirements for telecom providers. SB-341 next returns to the Senate to concur with Assembly changes. The legislature was expected to have voted later Wednesday on California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) update bills SB-4 and AB-14. A Supporter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that “several legislators intend to vote no on SB 4/AB 14 this week, potentially dooming the bills.” EFF later blamed legislator defections on cable opposition. CPUC Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves earlier warned that the cable industry might be trying to distract legislators from the CASF bills (see 2109070050). "For those of my colleagues who want to stick with the status quo, multi-billion dollar corporations deciding when they will grace Californians with service, they will have to answer to their constituents and be judged by history," said AB-14 sponsor Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry in a statement emailed to us. SB-4 sponsor Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) sought to rally legislators’ support, saying that “these bills are critical to ensuring the state can provide greater access to high-speed broadband to Californians, especially in unserved and underserved communities throughout the state.” Tracy Rhine, senior legislative advocate for supporter Rural County Representatives of California, expected a close vote, particularly on SB-4, with details about the CASF surcharge up for contention.
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.
California Public Utilities Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves worries about the cable industry creating “false problems” that distract legislators from efforts to update the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), she said in an interview. With CASF bills expected to be up for floor votes in days, California Cable & Telecommunications Association (CCTA) President Carolyn McIntyre blogged Friday that the legislature should force the commission to prioritize the most unserved areas (see 2109030065) as it considers how to direct broadband funding from a $6 billion bill. Some phone companies agreed with cable concerns, in Friday comments.
Localities will urge Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to veto a California small-cells bill passed Thursday. Local lawyers Friday decried -- as the wireless industry praised -- SB-556 to codify an FCC $270 cap on annual small-cell attachment rates and shorten shot clocks. Then-Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a small-cells bill opposed by localities in 2017 (see 1710170026). Some doubt Newsom will do the same.
Alaska telecom associations submitted state USF update proposals with a connections-based contribution method to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska in docket R-21-001. The Matanuska Telecom Association submitted its proposal for a flat-rate surcharge Wednesday after previewing it at an RCA meeting last month (see 2108110059). The revenue-based fee went as high as 19% in 2018 before the RCA capped it at 10%, MTA said. The RCA would require the new method and let the Alaska USF administrator set the monthly per line fee, the group proposed: No distribution changes are necessary. The Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition filed a plan for a new “Remote Alaska Fund” with a connections-based method that at first would support voice and later broadband. The RCA should set the AUSF at $30 million yearly, split evenly between small and large carriers, it said. GCI neither supports nor opposes any reform plan, and “is ambivalent about a connections-based funding mechanism,” the carrier commented. “Such a charge is certainly not a magic bullet that will solve the funding issue; the source of funding would continue to remain with ratepayers.” It could mean $2 per line monthly for every Alaska phone customer, and the RCA should consider how that “charge itself harms the goal of universal service,” GCI said. Alaska Communications suggested splitting the proceeding into two phases, the first to decide whether to continue the fund and any contribution changes, the second to tackle distribution changes.
Local 911 officials and broadcasters blamed AT&T for communication problems during Hurricane Ida. Telecom network issues caused public safety answering point (PSAP) outages and kept stations from communicating with staff and viewers as they face power issues, they said.
Some proposed rules for withdrawing basic local exchange service (BLES) could be unlawful, phone and cable companies commented Wednesday. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) is weighing draft rules in docket 14-1554-TP-ORD to implement a 2019 state law and allow ILECs to forego carrier of last resort obligations (see 2108250050). The law lets ILECs withdraw or abandon BLES in exchanges where they get FCC permission to withdraw the interstate portion, provided they give 120 days' notice to affected customers, who can petition PUCO for relief if they can’t find a “reasonable and comparatively priced service.” AT&T said PUCO’s proposal contains “fatal defects,” warning that the commission can't go beyond what the legislature required. One problem is a proposal to add a 30-day notice requirement for sole providers of voice service, which the legislature didn't require and is overbroad because voice includes more than BLES, AT&T said. It means VoIP could be improperly included, commented the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Association: The law didn't authorize extending authority over voice providers. The Ohio Telecom Association said PUCO would exceed its statutory authority if it expands the law’s definition of “reasonable and comparatively priced service” to say that a service “is presumptively deemed competitively priced, subject to rebuttal,” if the rate doesn’t exceed either the ILEC’s BLES rate by more than 20% or the FCC’s urban rate floor. The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and other consumer advocates said PUCO’s proposed definition of the same phrase is “vague regarding which threshold would apply for determining that a service is presumptively deemed ‘comparatively’ priced.” Require customer notices to be clear and mailed separately from phone bills, advocates said.
Lawmakers redrafted broadband bills to update the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) ahead of floor votes expected next week. Items from the once similar SB-4 and AB-14 will be split between the bills by Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) and Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D), with the complementary measures contingent on each other’s enactment, showed fact sheets. Legislators adjusted the bills to complement a $6 billion broadband budget bill (see 2107200056). AB-14 now includes proposals to extend the existing CASF surcharge by 10 years until Dec. 31, 2032, require ISPs to report affordable internet plans and to adjust VoIP contribution methodology. SB-4 now includes proposals to streamline permit reviews, raise the CASF surcharge cap to $150 million yearly from $66 million and make local governments eligible. The Senate bill would require CASF infrastructure grant applications to provide 100 Mbps downloads and 20 Mbps uploads and would identify households with less than 25/3 Mbps as unserved, while prioritizing households that have only 10/1 Mbps or that are in mostly low-income census tracts. SB-4 could get a vote by Tuesday or Wednesday next week, said a Gonzalez spokesperson. The redrafted bills, contingent on each other's enactment, should be in print by Friday, emailed Gonzalez aide George Soares. "We are very excited about this development and look forward to taking both bills up early next week."
Cable and wireless industry officials urged quick action on pole access disputes when the Florida Public Service Commission starts regulating pole attachments next year. PSC staff heard testimony at a partially virtual Wednesday workshop about draft rules for handling pole attachment complaints, the agency's opening hearing on implementing a law enacted in June (see 2108120062). The rulemaking process will “lay out what the sandbox is going to look like,” said former PSC Chairman Ronald Brise in an interview.
A judge sought to push along discovery in DOJ and states' antitrust case against Google. At a livestreamed status conference Tuesday, Judge Amit Mehta of U.S. District Court in Washington directed parties to file a joint statement by 2 p.m. Friday on where things stand on parties’ disagreement over the scope of a DOJ deposition notice about market share. Google attorney John Schmidtlein and DOJ Civil Division trial attorney Kenneth Dintzer said they’re meeting Wednesday. Mehta ordered Google to provide “dates certain” by close-of-business Friday for a deposition witness to appear on states’ request about how Google analyzes session logs showing consumers’ journey through the search engine. Mehta also sought updates by then on Google disputes with Yelp and Microsoft about the scope of Google’s document requests. Google complained Microsoft production remains sluggish, in a Tuesday filing. Microsoft objected to using “Bing” and other Google-requested search strings for the document production. Mehta said they don’t “strike me as out of bounds.” He urged Google to look harder at adjusting proximity connectors, which measure how closely words appear in a document, as a possible way to reduce burdens on Microsoft. Parties should reach agreement on technology-assisted review to increase efficiencies, he said. Mehta wants to see Microsoft’s pace increase through September, with a goal of finishing by mid-October. The judge last month set Sept. 30 for Apple to produce about 1.5 million documents DOJ requested (see 2108190041). Mehta said he won’t order Google to turn over to DOJ certain information, including privileged logs and materials produced for past investigations. The jurist said the request was too broad and maybe not entirely relevant. Mehta resolved another disagreement over sharing Google documents about employees’ self-assessments and performance reviews. DOJ asked the court to reject Google’s request to limit distribution of such documents to eight people because it didn’t account for IT professionals, experts and others. Mehta said such tight protections could apply to entire documents, but snippets relevant to deposition could be more widely shared. The next three status hearings are Sept. 28 at 11 a.m., Oct. 29 at 3 p.m. and Nov. 30 at 11 a.m., Mehta said.
Let electric utilities focus on wildfire efforts, said some comments posted Tuesday. The California Public Utilities Commission is considering pilot projects by investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in unserved areas as part of its broadband rulemaking in docket R.20-09-001. Because it's critical IOUs "safeguard infrastructure from igniting catastrophic wildfires, the Commission should not overburden electrical utilities and slow that urgent work,” commented Rural County Representatives of California. The Utility Reform Network agreed: “The CPUC should not require the IOUs to undertake work to expand broadband infrastructure that would divert resources from utility wildfire risk mitigation or service restoration.” Charter Communications wants to ensure there isn’t any overbuilding. Southern California Edison’s proposal for Ventura County is in Charter territory, Charter said. Focus on supporting ISPs deploying broadband, suggested AT&T. Utilities appear reluctant about helping, so don't rely on their "substantial participation,” said Center for Accessible Technology.