Pennsylvania Sen. Gene Yaw (R) supports a regional hearing on a service quality complaint by state consumer and small business advocates (see 2301310016). Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission administrative law judges plan a prehearing conference April 11. About 300 customer complaints to state representatives describe “serious and persistent service problems experienced with Frontier’s telephone and broadband service availability … and raise fundamental safety concerns for the affected customers,” Yaw wrote to the commission Wednesday. “Without access to these basic communication services, these Pennsylvanians have been unable to correspond via phone or computer with family members, physicians, and emergency services, etc. This is not acceptable by any standard.”
The Arizona Corporation Commission will wait to change or repeal state USF, said a 5-0 decision released Thursday in docket T-00000A-20-0336. Staff recommended last month waiting for a Frontier Communications rate case coming Aug. 30 (see 2302070057).
The West Virginia Public Service Commission should approve a 911 pact between Frontier Communications and the state’s Morgan County, the company and county said Thursday. To resolve the county’s complaint, Frontier agreed to “various acts regarding redundant or diverse 9-1-1 circuits or their alternatives between the Berkeley Springs and Paw Paw exchanges,” said the joint petition in docket 22-0686-T-C.
A Minnesota 988 surcharge on telecom bills is a must, said state Sen. Melissa Wiklund (D) and a mental health advocate, at a Minnesota Senate Health and Human Services hearing livestreamed Thursday. Wiklund’s bill SF-2588 would allow a 988 surcharge of 12-25 cents monthly. Short-term federal funding is helping the mental health and suicide hotline, said the senator. "However, this is not ongoing funding, and there is a need to create a stable and sustainable funding model to support the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline in Minnesota long term.” Wiklund noted she's talking to telecom industry lobbyists about ensuring accountability for how 988 fee revenue is used, like there is for 911 fee revenue. Mental Health Minnesota Executive Director Shannah Mulvihill said federal funding is "temporary and still not enough,” and Minnesota “can’t depend” on the state’s current budget surplus. "The broad allowable use of these fees reflects reality," she said. "The 988 service fees in this bill will help establish an equitable system to address mental health emergencies and parallel services including 988 call centers." The fee will start at 12 cents if the bill becomes law, said Mulvihill, answering a question by Sen. Paul Utke (R). But Sen. Jim Abeler (R) said it seems like fees always seem to end up at the maximum allowed. And Abeler isn’t sure Minnesotans expect higher fees when the state has a $19 billion surplus, he said.
The Kentucky House passed a bill to ban TikTok, in a 96-3 vote Wednesday. The House amended SB-20 so it must return to the Senate for concurrence. The Senate passed an older version of the bill unanimously last month. The House amendment added exemptions for public postsecondary education institutions and executive branch agencies that determine using TikTok is necessary for law enforcement activities, civil investigations or enforcement activities, or research on security practices or threats, “so long as the agency takes appropriate steps to obtain the necessary access without endangering the agency's network, or any other network owned, operated, or otherwise under the control of state government.”
The California Public Utilities Commission approved an overlay for Los Angeles area codes 213 and 323, as part of a unanimous vote on the CPUC’s consent agenda Thursday. The new code is expected to be implemented in nine months, said the proposed decision in docket A.22-08-009 (see 2302100033). In the same vote, the CPUC approved about $2.1 million in local agency technical assistance grants for four applicants (Resolution T-17781). The CPUC awarded $3.2 million last January and $5.76 million in December through the same program (see 2301130040).
New York Sen. Kevin Parker (D) expects “nominal” cost to industry from his bill to require telecom companies to report on the quality of copper-wire services, the Telecom Committee chairman said at the panel’s Thursday meeting. Companies may not want to report it, said Parker, but they have the information. The committee cleared S-5343 for a floor vote despite two Republican members’ opposition. The panel also advanced with two nays a bill (S-5272) to require telecom industry reporting on franchise fees, consumer complaints and denials of requests for service. Publishing those “shall illuminate the bad faith of certain cable companies … and place a proper check on their practices,” Parker wrote in a sponsor memo. S-5272 will go to the Finance Committee.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission directed Central Maine Power (CMP) to “collaborate with stakeholders on the implementation of its pole attachment database” and give periodic status reports to the PUC. The PUC closed docket 2021-00321 in a Wednesday order. The Maine PUC was reviewing Alden One, a joint use software system developed by electric pole owners CMP and Versant that would provide a centralized database for pole attachments (see 2209260050).
Arizona Senate majority and minority caucuses supported an anti-robocalls bill on the unanimous consent agenda Tuesday. The House unanimously passed HB-2498 last month, which is meant to fight automated calls and texts (see 2303090030).
Michigan received 154 applications totaling about $2.3 billion in project costs and requesting about $1.3 billion in grants under the state’s Realizing Opportunities with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) program, said the Michigan High-Speed Internet (MIHI) Office in an update Wednesday. The application window closed Tuesday. Applications proposed connecting nearly 380,000 homes, MIHI said. “The team is working diligently to cure each application for completeness and begin the review and scoring process. … Considering the number of applications, the staggering grant funds requested and the detail to which our staff and the ROBIN Steering Committee review each application, this process could take some time.”