Illinois, Oregon and Puerto Rico received NTIA clearance to collect federal funding for the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, the agency said Thursday. With both volumes of their initial proposals now approved, Illinois may request access to about $1 billion, Oregon about $196 million and Puerto Rico roughly $334 million, NTIA said. The states and territory will have one year to submit a final proposal, including the outcome of their subgrantee selection process. NTIA greenlit Colorado and New Hampshire earlier this week (see 2406110046). It has approved volume 2 for 12 states and Puerto Rico. All states, territories and the District of Columbia have received volume 1 approval (see 2405310050).

Multiple consumer privacy advocates urged Rhode Island legislators to halt passage of weak privacy protections. The Senate voted 36-1 to pass the comprehensive bill (S-2500) on Wednesday. The “critical bill” is a “marriage” of Connecticut’s privacy law and the work of a Rhode Island commission, said sponsor Sen. Louis DiPalma (D) at the livestreamed floor session. The commission included five legislators, Attorney General Peter Neronha (D) and Verizon, TechNet and the New England Cable and Telecommunications Association. Sen. Samuel Bell (D) voted no. He said the bill was too weak during a committee meeting earlier this week. The House passed the similar H-7787 earlier. Consumer Reports, which signaled its opposition previously (see 2406110033), joined with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Restore the Fourth in a Tuesday letter. The proposed comprehensive privacy law “would do little to protect Rhode Island consumers’ personal information, or to rein in major tech companies like Google and Facebook,” they wrote. “The bill needs to be substantially improved before it is enacted; otherwise, it would risk locking in industry-friendly provisions that avoid actual reform.” The groups suggested several changes, including adding data minimization rules and requiring that companies honor browser-based privacy signals as global opt-outs. Also, they said the bill's privacy notice rules should cover all data controllers, not just commercial websites and ISPs. Cut the proposed exemption for pseudonymous data and narrow another carveout for loyalty programs, they said. In addition, adding a private right of action will strengthen enforcement, the groups said.

The connections-based Utah Universal Service Fund surcharge will increase 27 cents to 98 cents monthly per access line, a 38% rise, on July 1, a Tuesday notice in docket 24-R008-01 said. The Utah Public Service Commission said it didn't receive comments on the proposed change. Previously it said the increase was needed because of an AT&T error (see 2404160023 and 2405280028).

The California Public Utilities Commission could collect feedback this fall on whether to revise its carrier of last resort (COLR) rules, according to a proposed decision released Monday. The CPUC plans a June 20 vote on opening a rulemaking to weigh possible changes to COLR rules, along with a related item that would deny COLR relief to AT&T (see 2406050016 and 2405310029), a meeting agenda also posted Monday said. “In general, the purpose of this proceeding is to consider whether the Commission should revise its COLR rules and, if yes, what those revisions should be,” the CPUC draft said. The proposed rulemaking would adopt “a rebuttable presumption that the COLR construct remains necessary, at least for certain individuals or communities in California,” it said. Among other questions, the CPUC would ask if there are areas that may no longer require a COLR, if it should require VoIP or wireless providers to be COLRs, and if it should revise rules on how current COLRs may shed those obligations. If approved by the California commissioners, comments would be due Sept. 30, replies Oct. 30.

NTIA gave Colorado and New Hampshire a green light to collect federal funding for the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, the agency said Tuesday. With both volumes of their initial proposals now approved, Colorado may request access to about $826 million and New Hampshire about $196 million, NTIA said. The states will have one year to submit a final proposal that will include the outcome of its subgrantee selection process. A BEAD dashboard shows the agency has approved volume 2 for 10 states and volume 1 for all states, territories and the District of Columbia (see 2405310050). NTIA will announce more approvals “on a rolling basis,” the agency said.

Nebraska signed a five-year contract with RapidSOS that will provide enhancements for next-generation 911 at the state’s 67 public safety answering points, the Nebraska Public Service Commission said Friday. One feature of the upgrade is that PSAPs will be able to get location information from wireless callers even if the carrier can’t deliver the call, the PSC said. “Many Nebraska PSAPs currently utilize RapidSOS,” said PSC State 911 Director David Sankey. “Elevating all PSAPs to the company’s UNITE modules, will provide even more tools to supplement caller location capabilities should a disruption in wireless service occur.”

LTD Broadband may relinquish its eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation in Minnesota, the state’s Public Utilities Commission said in an order released Friday. Parties reached an agreement last month resolving the PUC’s proceeding (docket 22-221) on revoking LTD’s designation (see 2405030074). The ISP had asked to surrender its ETC status because the FCC canceled the company’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support (see 2405020042). Also Friday, the Minnesota PUC said it will decide at its June 20 meeting on a service quality probe involving Lumen. The PUC will vote on whether the company violated state rules and what the remedies should be if so (docket C-20-432). State agencies last month pressed the PUC to support an administrative law judge’s recommendation that it require the carrier to rehab its copper network (see 2404150068).

State Rep. Evan Shanley (D) predicted Friday the Rhode Island House will vote on his comprehensive privacy bill this week. A House committee advanced an amended version of H-7787 on Thursday (see 2406060071). Shanley expects the Senate version (SB-2500) by Sen. Louis DiPalma (D) “will advance as well,” he told us. Meanwhile, the Vermont legislature delivered a privacy bill (H-121) to Gov. Phil Scott (R) Friday. He has five days to veto the bill, or it will become law. The tech industry seeks a veto due to differences with other state laws, including that Vermont’s bill has a broad private right of action (see 2405300038).

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) announced $81.5 million for broadband from the final round of its Next Level Connections program. The governor’s office said Thursday that it expects it will connect more than 34,000 homes and commercial locations across 54 counties. The fourth-round awardees included 17 telecom companies and utility cooperatives, Holcomb’s office said. ISP big winners included Comcast (about $9.4 million), Charter ($9.3 million), Surf Air Wireless ($8.6 million), BerryComm ($7 million), AT&T ($6.6 million) and Brightspeed ($5.6 million).

The California Public Utilities Commission may vote July 11 on a proposed decision related to ratemaking for small local exchange carriers. It would respond to Calaveras Telephone and other small LECs’ September 2022 application seeking approval to establish cost of capital for each company’s ratemaking purposes (see 2306070065). Cost of capital is the rate of return a company may recover on infrastructure investments. The CPUC draft would establish a cost of capital for 2022-2025. “To arrive at the Cost of Capital for the Small LECs, this decision adopts a hypothetical capital structure” of 55% equity and 45% debt, “which we find to be consistent with our findings with respect to the regulatory capital structure of these companies,” the draft said.