Lifting Minnesota limits on municipal broadband “may prove costly to local taxpayers and harmful to consumers of broadband services,” Free State Foundation Director-Policy Studies Seth Cooper blogged Thursday. Gov. Tim Walz (D) last month signed a bill that struck an old law letting municipalities buy or construct telephone exchanges, which also included broadband networks, only if a supermajority approved it in a local referendum election (see 2405240011). “Promoting broadband access to all of a community’s residents is a commendable goal,” Cooper wrote. “But labeling local votes of the people or taxpayer protections ‘barriers’ or ‘roadblocks’ effectively dismisses other important goals such as preserving local government integrity, respecting the will of local residents, and safeguarding taxpayers and beneficiaries of traditional government services.”

New York City Council Member Gale Brewer (D) introduced legislation Thursday that would prohibit the Department of Correction from "recording voice communications or electronic communications" made to or by individuals in DOC custody except when there is a warrant or express consent. The bill, End Correctional Community Surveillance (ECCos) Act, was co-sponsored by Council Members Shekar Krishnan, Carlina Rivera, Yusef Salaam, Sandy Nurse and Diana Ayala, all Democrats. The bill would also bar the DOC from collecting or buying location data of such calls and establish a "private right of action for anyone whose voice or electronic communications were unlawfully recorded, monitored, or otherwise surveilled."

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed two kids’ online safety bills, as expected (see 2406070065), on Thursday. Hochul voiced support earlier this month when the legislature passed the controversial measures to require obtaining parental consent when using algorithms to sort feeds for minors (S-7694) and to ban websites collecting and sharing minors’ personal data without informed consent (S-7695). “Today, we save our children,” said Hochul. “We have heard their cries for help, reminding us as adults that we have a moral responsibility to protect young New Yorkers from harm and from addictive forces.” New York Attorney General Letita James (D) added in another news release, "As we move forward with the rulemaking process, my office will work tirelessly to defend these new laws to protect New York children."

The FCC and Massachusetts will probe a 911 outage reported around the state that lasted at least two hours Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Maine Department of Public Safety said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is checking why people in Maine and other states received wireless emergency alerts (WEA) about the Massachusetts incident. The FCC is "looking into what occurred" in Massachusetts and "the reports concerning WEA," a commission spokesperson said. A Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security spokesperson said in a statement just before 4 p.m. that the 911 system was restored. The office sent its first alert about the problem at 2:22 p.m. It said that the state 911 department is “aware of a disruption ... and is investigating the cause.” The state advised residents facing an emergency to call local police departments’ direct lines. “We will provide further information as it becomes available.” Multiple local public safety agencies alerted the public via social media about the problems calling 911. “The current 911 system is down statewide,” the Boston Fire Department posted on X at 1:55 p.m. The Brockton Fire Department posted “Major 911 outage in Massachusetts” at 1:41 p.m. on the same platform. People in other states said they received wireless emergency alerts about the Massachusetts outage, including a Comm Daily reporter with a Virginia area code. The same Virginia-based reporter later received another WEA that said Maine's 911 system was fully operational and to disregard the emergency alert from another state. The Massachusetts "alert was sent to other surrounding states in error and is being investigated by FEMA," the Maine Public Safety Department said in a statement. "Maine 911 is up and running." FEMA declined to comment.

Vermont legislators failed to override a veto of the state's comprehensive privacy bill. Last week Gov. Phil Scott (R) vetoed H-121, which controversially included a private right of action and a kids code section similar to a California law that was temporarily enjoined. The tech industry lauded Scott's veto, while consumer advocates and the bill’s sponsor urged a legislative override (see 2406140017). Overrides require a two-thirds majority from each chamber. On Monday, the House met that threshold with a 128-17 vote, but the effort died in the Senate, where members voted 14-15. “Industry feared this legislation and worked so hard to kill it because it had real teeth to prevent their harmful data practices,” Consumer Reports Policy Analyst Matt Schwartz said. But the fight for strong Vermont privacy protections will continue, he added. The failure also disappointed Design It For Us, said co-Chair Zamaan Qureshi: The bill “would have been a much-needed step toward protecting youth from the sustained exploitation and undue harms that we experience from social media.”

Following a Connecticut probe that discovered evidence of Frontier Communications' service-quality failures, the carrier may have to prepare additional reporting and could receive a violation notice, the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) said in a draft decision Monday (docket 24-01-15). PURA could make a final decision July 10; exceptions to the draft are due June 25, a separate notice said. Responding to a petition from the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel, PURA investigated Frontier and found it wasn't complying with two of five Connecticut service-quality standards, the agency said. Frontier "repeatedly failed" to meet minimum standards for "maintenance appointments met" (MAM) and "out-of-service repair" (OSR), it said. During a 108-month period -- Jan. 1, 2015, to Dec. 13, 2023 -- Frontier failed to meet the MAM standard in 35 months and the OSR standard in 51 months, PURA found. During that period, Frontier didn't file required reports to PURA in 16 instances when the companies fell below one of the standards for three consecutive months, the agency added. In May comments, Frontier noted it performed strongly on the state’s other three service-quality standards, metrics that the carrier deemed more important (see 2405200053). However, PURA responded in the draft order, "Frontier’s compliance with three out of the five standards does not excuse the Company from completely complying with the regulations.” Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Verizon filed a petition asking PURA to reclassify its remaining services as competitive and retire the company’s alternative form of regulation plan (docket 24-06-15). “Today, Verizon serves only a small sliver of the Greenwich area as the incumbent telephone company, with multiple others offering competing services in the same area that give consumers a wide range of choices,” and yet “we remain subject to outdated classifications and regulations on some of our legacy services,” the carrier said. If PURA grants the petition, Verizon said it would continue serving Connecticut customers “but under the same rules that apply to all competitive providers in the state.”

A California bill requiring more public information on resiliency efforts by telecom companies cleared the Senate Communications Committee on Tuesday. The bill (AB-2765) would require the California Public Utilities Commission to report on inspections that ensure companies comply with resiliency plans. The Assembly previously passed the measure in a unanimous vote last month (see 2405220055). Communication during an emergency can be a matter of “life and death,” sponsor Gail Pellerin (D) said during the committee’s livestreamed hearing. The Utility Reform Network lobbyist Ignacio Hernandez said the bill would give Californians more confidence that communications networks will have backup power during disasters. While the state requires telecom companies to have backup power plans, the public currently can’t tell the degree to which companies are complying and whether remedial actions are needed, he said. The bill goes next to the Appropriations Committee.

New York state’s affordable internet law won’t be enforced for now, ISP associations said Monday. The industry groups won’t file a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc of a 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision upholding New York state’s Affordable Broadband Act, according to a Friday letter to the court from ACA Connects, CTIA, NTCA, USTelecom and the New York State Telecommunications Association. The 2nd Circuit ruled in April that federal law doesn’t preempt the 2021 New York law requiring $15 monthly plans with 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for qualifying low-income households (see 2404260051). The 2nd Circuit issued its mandate on that decision Monday. While Friday’s letter to the court didn’t say why ISPs wouldn’t seek rehearing, the industry groups previously told the court they were working toward an agreement with the state that would make a rehearing petition unnecessary (see 2406060038). In a joint statement Monday, the associations said they agreed not to seek rehearing because Attorney General Letitia James (D) agreed to “suspend enforcement of this law while the courts consider the litigation in this case.” The ISP groups said they “continue to support state and federal measures that foster broadband affordability without requiring rate regulation.” While the groups won’t seek rehearing by the 2nd Circuit, they could still seek U.S. Supreme Court review by the end of July. However, the industry groups expect a 6th Circuit ruling before that deadline -- possibly in the next three weeks -- on the FCC’s order reclassifying broadband as a Title II service, said an industry lawyer involved in the appeals process. The 6th Circuit ruling would affect how ISPs proceed on their challenge to the New York law because the 2nd Circuit decision was based on broadband as Title I, the lawyer said. If the 6th Circuit stays the FCC order, preserving a Title I world, industry would likely appeal the 2nd Circuit decision to the Supreme Court, the source said. However, if there isn’t a stay and the Title II order takes effect, industry could instead file a fresh lawsuit at the district court challenging the New York law under the Title II regime, the attorney said. AG James agreed not to enforce the state law until Aug. 21 or 14 days after a potential 6th Circuit stay of the FCC order, the attorney said. New York’s AG office referred us to the New York Public Service Commission for comment. However, a PSC spokesperson said the commission doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

The North Carolina Department of Information Technology awarded $67 million in Completing Access to Broadband program money to provide connectivity to nearly 16,000 households and businesses in 15 counties. It said Monday nearly $35 million from the American Rescue Plan Act will fund the projects, along with $16 million from counties and more than $16 million from broadband providers.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission denied an application from Lumen’s CenturyLink asking for equipment installed in 2022 to be designated as qualified broadband equipment (case QWE-T-23-05). Taxpayers can receive an Idaho income tax credit for installing qualified broadband equipment during a calendar year, but the PUC must confirm it can transmit signals with at least 0.2 Mbps download and 0.125 Mbps upload speeds. CenturyLink claimed it spent $23.3 million installing equipment with at least 0.5 Mbps/0.25 Mbps. “The commission denied CenturyLink’s application after reviewing it and determining it did not properly describe the broadband equipment in question,” the PUC said. “The company also did not respond to audit requests from commission staff for information on the equipment that would have included the brand, model number and manufacturer.” The carrier declined to comment on the PUC order.