NTIA gave Wisconsin approval to collect more than $1 billion in broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) funds Tuesday. The federal agency approved volume 2 of the state’s initial proposal, granting it access to Federal Internet for All funds. NTIA has approved BEAD initial plans for 29 states, plus three territories and the District of Columbia. Twenty-three states and territories have submitted volume 2 initial proposals and the NTIA expects to review most of them by next month (see 2408010053).

The California Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday handed down a $200,000 fine against T-Mobile’s MetroPCS for universal service violations. Administrative Law Judge Robert Mason in June recommended the amount, which translates to $100,000 per violation (see 2406250054). The CPUC’s enforcement division had sought a $10 million fine, finding that the carrier insufficiently responded to a Sept. 27, 2021, data request (see 2209230032). The proceeding is now closed, the order said.

AT&T filed a motion July 31 to discontinue service in Alaskan communities, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska said in a public notice Monday. The application indicates the proposed discontinuance would affect 500 residential and 1,400 business customers and cover 42 townships on Alaska's west coast. AT&T filed a motion for expedited consideration, seeking approval by Nov. 30. Comments are due Sept. 4.

Charter Communications and Hawaiian Telcom joined a $4 billion settlement with Hawaii to resolve lawsuits related to last year’s Maui wildfires, Gov. Josh Green (D) said Friday. Under proposed terms of the agreement, which “remains subject to final documentation and court approval,” the telecom companies and five other defendants will compensate about 2,200 parties who filed lawsuits, the governor’s office said. The agreement is the result of four months of mediation. Green said his goal “was to expedite the agreement and to avoid protracted and painful lawsuits so as many resources as possible would go to those affected by the wildfires as quickly as possible.” Charter declined to comment Monday. Hawaiian Telcom didn’t comment.

NTIA gave Arizona approval to collect $993 million in broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) funds Monday. The federal agency approved volume 2 of the state’s initial proposal. NTIA has approved entire initial plans for 28 states plus three territories and the District of Columbia. The agency approved five plans last week and expects to review most by next month (see 2408010053).

NTIA gave Missouri and Tennessee the go-ahead to collect a combined $2.5 billion in broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) funds Friday. The federal agency approved volume 2 of each state’s initial plan. NTIA allocated about $1.7 billion to Missouri and $813 million to Tennessee. NTIA has approved entire initial plans for 27 states plus three territories and the District of Columbia. The agency approved five plans last week and expects to review most by next month (see 2408010053). Meanwhile, Kentucky opened a portal to apply for broadband grants from the state’s $1.1 billion BEAD allocation, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said Friday. Potential applicants can register now. A prequalification phase will run Aug. 14 to Sept. 13, in which the state will collect managerial, technical and operational information. Kentucky expects to start accepting applications in November, Beshear's office said.

Total Florida landlines stand at 764,000, a 17.7% decline from 2022 as consumers and businesses chose wireless and VoIP, the Florida Public Service Commission said Thursday in a telecom competition report. The total dipped below 1 million in 2022 (see 2308010054). Business landlines exceeded residential ones for the 13th straight year, though business lines still sank 15% while residential lines decreased by 21.8%. AT&T saw a 27.2% decline in residential lines during 2023, while the decrease was 25.6% at Frontier Communications and 19.9% at Lumen’s CenturyLink.

New York state on Thursday started the process to implement two kids’ online safety laws. Attorney General Letitia James (D) released an Advanced NPRM for each. The bills are the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (Safe) for Kids Act and the Child Data Protection Act. While not part of the formal rulemaking process under the state’s administrative procedures act, the ANPRMs let the state seek information before proposing rules, the AG office said. Comments are due Sept. 30. “New Yorkers are looking to this office to protect children on social media apps and online, and the rules we are drafting will do precisely that,” James said. “By offering everyone, supporters and opponents of the recently signed legislation, the opportunity to submit comments and information, my office will ensure that we can better address concerns and priorities.” The Safe Act requires obtaining parental consent when using algorithms to sort feeds for minors, while the kids’ privacy bill bans websites from collecting and sharing minors’ personal data without informed consent. In the Safe Act ANPRM, the AG office asked about how it should identify commercially reasonable and technically feasible age-verification methods, how it should implement a parental consent mechanism and how to determine whether a social media platform is addictive. In the kids’ privacy bill ANPRM, the AG office asked about what factors are relevant to determining that a website is primarily directed at minors, young teenagers and older teens. Among many other questions, the office asked if there should be any exceptions to the definition of a data “sale” and how rules should account for “anonymized or deidentified data that could potentially still be re-linked to a specific individual.” Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) applauded the process to implement the bills she signed in June (see 2406200069). Citing the U.S. Senate's passage of two children’s internet safety bills Tuesday (see 2407300042), Hochul said, “Our efforts in New York are accelerating a national conversation on youth mental health and social media.”

Electric pole owners raised labor shortage and other concerns with Kentucky Public Service Commission changes to state pole attachment rules that are meant to spur broadband. The PSC received comments Wednesday on emergency amendments that the agency filed May 31 with the Legislative Research Commission. The PSC previously received comments May 21 on a draft in docket 2023-00416 (see 2405220040). The PSC's "use of inflexible timeframes for make-ready requirements -- rather than continuing to rely on commonsense good cause provisions -- will only compound the problems posed by [a] national worker shortage,” a group of electric cooperatives warned. Someday, the current "trickle of applications will likely be replaced by a deluge that will stretch the Cooperatives’ staff and resources, frustrating pole owners and attachers alike,” they added. Duke Energy questioned the PSC’s plan that would allow an attacher with multiple applications to choose the order a utility should review them. Prioritizing a new application would reset the review period of an older application currently under review, under the change. But Duke said "the need to track priorities and reset timelines of individual applications will create confusion, inefficiencies, and an unreasonable administrative burden for the utility.” The electric co-ops also raised concerns about that change. “Giving attachers the ability to reprioritize their applications at their discretion -- which can just as easily be done internally by attachers before submitting applications to pole owners -- only complicates the challenge of obtaining the right number of contractors at the right times.” In addition, the PSC rules lack "adequate enforcement of timely payment,” the co-ops said. “The staggering amount of outstanding payments due to pole owners from broadband providers looms over this entire proceeding.”

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission will weigh whether it should mirror the FCC’s December changes to federal pole attachment rules. Pennsylvania reverse preempted FCC authority in March 2020 (see 2003190032). Under state rules, Pennsylvania will adopt any FCC changes 60 days after the federal amendments become effective -- unless the PUC publishes a notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin saying the changes may not take effect. The Pennsylvania PUC said this week that it “hereby provides notice to the public that the Federal Rule Changes may not take effect in Pennsylvania, and hereby solicits public comment on the Federal Rule Changes.” Don’t “rehash or reargue” FCC determinations, warned the PUC in docket L-2018-3002672. “This process should be utilized to focus on the Pennsylvania-specific impacts of such changes.” Comments will be due 15 days after the notice is published in the Bulletin, it said. Expect publication of the notice in mid-August, a PUC spokesperson said Wednesday.