Gov. Kristi Noem (R) announced the final round of broadband funding under the Connect South Dakota program Tuesday. Applicants will vie for $27 million left in grants. “It’s time to finish the job,” said Noem in recorded remarks for the South Dakota Telecommunications Association conference. The state has spent about $269.5 million on broadband since 2019. “South Dakota has always budgeted conservatively and wisely. We can afford to make these dollars available and still maintain our fiscal responsibility.”
The California Public Utilities Commission set a Sept. 7 workshop in a proceeding to consider changes to service quality standards in General Order 133-D. The commission is considering whether to apply its traditional wireline standards to VoIP and wireless and if the CPUC’s penalty mechanism has been effective (see 2306050051). The workshop starts at 9 a.m. in Sacramento, Administrative Law Judge Thomas Glegola ruled Monday in docket R.22-03-016. Meanwhile, the Ohio Public Utilities Commission scheduled a Sept. 20 workshop in its five-year review of state retail telecom service rules (Chapter 4901:1-6). The workshop starts at 10 a.m. at the Ohio PUC, said a Monday notice in case 23-817-TP-ORD.
California lawmakers teed up digital equity and privacy bills Monday for a later vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The committee sent AB-41 and AB-1546 to the suspense file, a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly. AB-41 aims to tighten digital equity requirements in the state’s video franchise law. AB-1546 would extend the statute of limitations for privacy claims brought by the state attorney general. State appropriators cleared or moved into suspense several telecom bills last week, with votes on the bills expected by Sept. 1 (see 2308170044).
States can calculate their extremely high cost per location threshold (EHCT) for the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program with an economic modeling tool released Monday by the Fiber Broadband Association. The Cartesian tool uses geospatial analysis to build a financial model states can use to develop cost thresholds for fiber deployments, they said. The BEAD notice of funding opportunity directed states to deploy fiber except in the highest cost areas. States must set up an EHCT to determine where alternative technologies may be used. “The NTIA has just allocated $40 billion to the states, and now it is the states’ turn to use this funding to maximize fiber deployments by setting the correct EHCT,” said FBA President Gary Bolton. “Everyone recognizes this task is critical, but also challenging.”
The California Public Utilities Commission needs more information to review several telecom companies’ requests for extensions to provide pole attachment data required by a 2021 California Public Utilities Commission decision. The CPUC received requests from Verizon, T-Mobile, ExteNet, Sonic Telecom, Charter Communications and Consolidated Communications (see 2308010019). In a Wednesday order in docket 17-06-027, Administrative Law Judge Robert Mason asked each requestor to respond to several follow-up questions by Tuesday. T-Mobile responded Thursday.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission is seeking comment on how to reallocate $1.6 million remaining from a 2022-retired enforcement mechanism called the Colorado Performance Assurance Plan, the PUC said Wednesday. The commission said it must distribute remaining funds for competitively neutral telecom efforts that don’t directly benefit Lumen’s CenturyLink. Comments are due Sept. 8, replies Sept. 22 (docket 23M-0210T).
T-Mobile’s MetroPCS asked to dismiss a California Public Utilities Commission investigation into a dispute over USF surcharges due to completion of a related court case at the U.S. District Court for Northern California. MetroPCS won judgment against the CPUC earlier this month (see 2308040071). The federal court decided the resolutions the agency was trying to enforce against MetroPCS “are unlawful (because they are preempted by federal law) and enjoined the Commission from enforcing the Resolutions against MetroPCS,” T-Mobile said in Thursday’s motion.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission shouldn’t resume proceedings to consider revoking LTD Broadband’s eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winner said in comments posted Monday (docket 22-221). Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), industry and public interest groups urged the PUC to lift a Jan. 18 stay that was meant to give time for the FCC to rule on LTD’s appeal of the commission denying the company’s RDOF long-form application (see 2308140032). About seven months since the Minnesota stay, the FCC hasn’t decided on LTD’s appeal. Minnesota Telecom Association (MTA) and Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA) seek “to embroil the Commission in entirely unnecessary proceedings on the basis of speculation, inconsistent logic, and a fundamentally inaccurate characterization of the posture of LTD’s application for” RDOF support at the FCC, commented LTD: MTA and MREA are trying “to extinguish arbitrarily LTD’s current ETC status as a means of prejudicing LTD’s position in matters still pending before the FCC.” The RDOF winner claimed the associations’ true motivation is to get "funding under alternative programs in lieu of LTD." The FCC hasn’t completed reviewing LTD’s appeal, so “there is no reason to change the posture of this case and require the state and LTD to spend considerable time and expense on further proceedings that may prove to be entirely unnecessary,” LTD said. “Nor does the prospect of future broadband funding create any immediacy requiring that the current stay be lifted. Because LTD has not been authorized to receive support for any RDOF locations, these areas remain eligible for funding through other programs to the extent not benefiting from other subsidy programs or from more recent deployment of unsubsidized broadband service by LTD or other broadband providers.” Replies are due Aug. 21 at the Minnesota PUC.
Wisconsin opened a broadband grant round with $42 million from the U.S. Treasury Capital Projects Fund, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission said Monday. ISPs, telecom utilities, cooperatives, local governments and other organizations are eligible; projects must provide at least 100 Mbps symmetrical speeds and include at least one low-cost option for work, education and health monitoring, said the PSC: Applicants should apply by Nov. 7. The broadband infrastructure program will invest “in projects that improve access to high-speed internet for communities that were most impacted by the pandemic,” said Wisconsin PSC Chairperson Rebecca Valcq.
Companies have questions about a Maine plan to combine Consolidated Communications rate centers statewide. The Maine Public Utilities Commission received comments last week in an investigation (docket 2023-00009) of the feasibility of large-scale rate center consolidation in the 207 area code so as to more efficiently distribute phone numbers. Consolidated explained in a July 7 filing how it might combine all its Maine rate centers into one, which the company acknowledged hasn’t been done before. More study is needed, the Telecommunications Association of Maine (TAM) commented Friday. TAM fears a large scale rate center consolidation could affect its 14 RLEC members' toll and local service plans and rate structures, possibly confusing customers and increasing RLECs' costs and rates. Rate center consolidation might be a good idea, but more information is needed, said Charter Communications. The PUC should hold more workshops to better vet the plan, said Comcast. “Consolidated’s proposal is an industry-impacting event in Maine." The proposal raises many questions and concerns, said GoNetSpeed. “The plan has the potential to significantly impact all voice service providers, particularly the small, legacy ILEC companies who have existing contractual agreements with Consolidated to exchange network traffic." It "would need to be undertaken carefully," but rate center consolidation may be "a viable approach to help Maine extend the life of the single 207 area code,” said CTIA. But it's too soon to say what implementation timeline is reasonable, it said. The PUC should assess financial and public safety impacts and consider whether LECs besides Consolidated would also merge rate centers, said CTIA: The commission “should ensure that any plan considers and mitigates any unintended consequences that would result from having one consolidated LEC and other LECs that have not made the same changes to their operations.” Maine’s public advocate said it “would like to see a qualitative and quantitative description … of the operational efficiencies and long-term operational cost savings that Consolidated anticipates, and how it plans to recover the costs for the work it intends to do.”