Wireline ISPs urged California Senate appropriators to support a bill to revise the California Public Utilities Commission’s review process for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant applications, at a hearing Monday. AB-2749 would streamline the CASF program with federal funding coming, said USTelecom lobbyist Yolanda Benson at the livestreamed Senate Appropriations hearing. The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposes AB-2749 (see 2205240048). The committee agreed to move the bill to its “suspense file," a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly and that will be taken up before a Friday fiscal-committee deadline. The committee also sent to suspense AB-32 to keep temporary telehealth changes made on an emergency basis during the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2105170030); AB-1262, which seeks to restrict use of recordings or transcriptions of what users say to or in the presence of smart speakers; and AB-2750 to require the CPUC to develop a state digital equity plan by Jan. 1, 2024. California appropriators sent many other communications bills to suspense last week (see 2208030056 and 2208010060).

The FCC should recognize the increasing competition of the video marketplace and that the market for local programming goes beyond local broadcasters, said NAB and the affiliate groups of all four major networks in comments for the FCC’s biennial state of competition report (docket 22-203). “The FCC’s focus here and in pending rulemaking proceedings should be on measures increasing the broadcast industry’s competitiveness in today’s marketplace,” said NAB. “It is long past time for Commission action to classify vMVPDs as MVPDs for purposes of the retransmission consent rules,” the affiliate groups also said. “The newer distribution channels are still developing,” said MPA. “Regulation would hinder this experimentation, chill growth, increase costs, and reduce choices.” The musicFIRST Coalition and Future of Music Coalition jointly said the agency should reject NAB’s proposal to “eviscerate current numerical limits on the number of FM stations that one entity can own in a given market.” The groups also disagree with NAB over congressional legislation on performer licensing fees. “The upcoming report should not repeat the music industry’s predictable and unsuccessful talking points from a legislative debate over copyright policy,” NAB said. The agency should reject requests to treat fixed and mobile broadband services as separate complementary services and to define broadband at the 1 Gbps level, said NCTA. USTelecom said the FCC should “ease legacy regulatory hindrances” to broadband deployment. The agency should resume reporting on the practice of phone locking, said Public Knowledge, Consumer Reports and the Open Technology Institute. “Phone locking harms competition, frustrates users, and creates e-waste,” the groups said. SES Americom and O3B Limited jointly said the agency should “refrain from adopting requirements for its funding programs that specify a latency threshold of 100 ms.” Rural Media Group said the agency should launch a proceeding on “the dearth of access to rural news and agricultural programming.”

Industry sought improved coordination and transparency through the FCC, USDA and NTIA’s interagency agreement established under the Broadband Interagency Coordination Act of 2020. Some asked the agencies to make the shared information available publicly and to increase reliance on the FCC’s maps when coordinating broadband programs, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 22-251.

NCTA and USTelecom are criticizing the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act (HR-8573/S-4676) over its proposal to reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 2207280063). "Twenty years into an increasingly stale debate over net neutrality, the justifications for it seem increasingly limp," said NCTA CEO Michael Powell. "The case is particularly thin to justify the famed ‘nuclear option’ to reclassify carriers under Title II utility regulation which empowers the FCC with the authority to go big on new regulation.” The “once-in-a-lifetime” $65 billion in broadband funding included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act means “we need to be focused collectively on closing the digital divide and not taking a ride on the net neutrality carousel for the umpteenth time for no discernable reason,” Powell said: “Slapping an outdated and burdensome regulatory regime on broadband networks surely will damage the mission to deploy next-generation internet technology throughout America and get everyone connected.” ISPs “support net neutrality and already operate under these important principles while delivering real value and performance to customers,” said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter. “There is bipartisan support for net neutrality, but legislative proposals that would put any of this progress at risk are not the right answer. Let’s keep our focus on moving consumers’ internet experiences forward, not backward.”

Industry groups asked the FCC to streamline its rules for its annual data collection of subscription rates and plans offered through the affordable connectivity program (ACP). Some said the FCC should rely on the forthcoming broadband consumer labels and raised privacy concerns if data is collected at the subscriber level in comments posted Tuesday in docket 21-450.

ZipDX withdrew its letter of intent to become the registered consortium to head industry efforts to trace unlawful robocalls (see 2207060065). The company said it "reached an agreement" with USTelecom's industry traceback group (ITG) to "provide call examples" from its robocall surveillance platform to the ITG that will be used to initiate tracebacks, said a letter filed Monday in docket 20-22. "Through this collaboration, the two organizations hope to enhance each other’s respective initiatives in ways that will best protect American consumers from illegal robocalls," ZipDX said.

Lawmakers and diversity groups disagreed with industry trade groups about a petition for the FCC to require a vast swath of media companies -- including streaming services -- to report diversity data to the FCC. The schism surfaced in comments filed by Friday’s deadline in docket 22-209. “The media and entertainment industry is notorious for excluding people from historically underserved backgrounds,” said a letter of support from 20 Democratic House and Senate lawmakers, including Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.

Crisis call centers around the nation are seeing increases in traffic since the official launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (see 2207150036), with steeper growth expected to follow. Some crisis centers said the promotion of 988 for any mental health crisis intervention and not just suicide prevention will likely be a big driver of increased communications volumes over time.

The House Commerce Committee voted 53-2 Wednesday to advance bipartisan, bicameral privacy legislation to the floor (see 2207190040). Some California Democrats criticized the strength of the bill, saying they may not support the measure on the floor. Some questioned whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will bring the legislation up.

Minor changes were made to an FCC Further NPRM on curbing access stimulation adopted during the agency's July meeting, according to a comparison with the draft (see 2207140055). The FNPRM seeks comment on USTelecom's request to amend the proposed definition of an IP enabled services provider. No changes were made to a notice of inquiry seeking comment on how to improve access to Lifeline and the affordable connectivity program for survivors of domestic or sexual violence.