California could soon release more than $100 million in last-mile broadband grants through the California Public Utilities Commission's federal funding account (FFA), the CPUC said Friday. Three projects in Plumas County will receive $16.7 million through staff-delegated authority, the CPUC said. In addition, commissioners will consider two draft resolutions for an additional $88.6 million in awards at a July 11 meeting, the agency said. Draft resolution T-17826 recommends $44.1 million for unserved areas in Imperial, Lassen and Plumas counties. The Golden State Connect Authority and Plumas-Sierra Telecommunications would build the networks. Draft resolution T-17829 recommends $44.4 million for unserved areas in Alameda, San Francisco and Sierra counties. The awardees in that draft would be Plumas-Sierra and the cities of Oakland, Fremont and San Francisco. The CPUC has $2 billion available in the FFA and received applications requesting more than $4.6 billion total, the agency said. California Assembly Communications Committee Chair Tasha Boerner Horvath (D) raised concerns earlier this week about CPUC delays getting last-mile grants using 2021 American Rescue Plan Act dollars out the door (see 2406050065).
Wisconsin will award $1.48 million to increase telecom access through state universal service programs, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission said this week. The PSC announced 24 grants through the Nonprofit Access Grant Program, the Lifeline Outreach Grant Program and the Telemedicine Equipment Grant Program. “These grants will help more people obtain the devices and telecommunications services needed to connect with one another and lead healthy, enriching lives,” PSC Chairperson Summer Strand said. The grant recipients included one county and 23 nonprofits, the agency said.
Windstream sought California approval of a May 3 pact with Uniti Group, in which Windstream will become the subsidiary of a new parent corporation, the telco said in a Wednesday application at the California Public Utilities Commission. “No assignment of licenses, certificates, assets, or customers by the Windstream Licensees nor the immediate parent entities of the Windstream Licensees will occur as a consequence of the proposed Transaction, which will occur at the parent holding company level.”
Rhode Island state legislators revised a comprehensive privacy bill at a hearing Thursday. The House Innovation Internet and Technology Committee voted 9-0 to recommend passage of a substitute to H-7787. The “biggest change” in the update accepted by the committee “is that we’re creating two classifications” of regulated entities, sponsor Rep. Evan Shanley (D) said during the livestreamed hearing. Any entity subject to Rhode Island jurisdiction that collects, stores and sells personally identifiable information would have to disclose on its website the categories of information collected and the entities to whom they have sold or may sell the data. Meanwhile, for larger companies that control or process data of at least 35,000 customers or do so for at least 10,000 while deriving more than 20% of profits from the sale of personally identifiable information, customers would have a right to know what data has been collected about them and opt out of such collection. Other changes are meant to harmonize the bill with other states’ privacy laws, Shanley said.
The California Public Utilities Commission should fine AT&T for “continuing misrepresentations” about its petition for carrier of last resort (COLR) relief, the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office said in reply comments Tuesday. AT&T last week raised legal and constitutional concerns as it protested a CPUC proposed decision that would dismiss the carrier’s application (see 2405310029). AT&T’s opening comments repeated already rejected arguments, said PAO: The commission should “conclude as a matter of law that AT&T violated” a CPUC ethics rule “and impose sanctions of $1,000 on AT&T’s signatory attorneys." Other consumer groups piled on in separate replies in docket R.23-03-003. The Center for Accessible Technology said, “AT&T’s comments are based on incorrect interpretations of Commission rules and the mistaken belief that AT&T is entitled to relinquish its COLR status.” The Utility Reform Network said the carrier’s argument for rejecting the CPUC’s draft incorrectly “rests on the proposition that the Commission misunderstands its own COLR rules.” But AT&T replied that the CPUC must accept “all of the factual allegations” in its application as true. “The opposing commenters turn that standard upside down when they attack the factual basis for this Application and propose the Commission include additional incorrect and inflammatory allegations about AT&T California and the reliability of its services,” it said.
A special unit in the Texas attorney general’s office will enforce privacy laws, AG Ken Paxton (R) said Tuesday. Housed within the Consumer Protection Division, the team will enforce the state’s comprehensive privacy law that takes effect July 1, plus other state and federal data protection laws, the AG office said. “Any entity abusing or exploiting Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law,” Paxton said. “Companies that collect and sell data in an unauthorized manner, harm consumers financially, or use artificial intelligence irresponsibly present risks to our citizens that we take very seriously.”
Kansas and Nebraska touted broadband grants Tuesday with Kansas awarding $3.9 million to seven organizations through the its Advancing Digital Opportunities to Promote Technology (ADOPT) program. The effort supports expanding public Wi-Fi and distributing devices in unserved areas. Awardees include Kansas State University ($1.48 million), Mokan Communications (about $721,000) and the Wichita Library Foundation (about $289,000), the governor’s office said. Meanwhile, the Nebraska Public Service Commission said it would award about $31,000 to 28 applications using money from the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund. The projects, which received awards in a second round of CPF grants, are expected to bring broadband to about 1,640 unserved and 1,570 underserved locations, said the PSC: The projects have a Dec. 4, 2025, completion deadline.
A New York state privacy bill cleared the Senate and will go to the Assembly. Senators voted 41-19 Monday to approve S-365 by Consumer Protection Committee Chairman Kevin Thomas (D). The Assembly referred the bill to the Consumer Affairs Committee. In addition, the Senate voted 60-0 for a bill (S-6318) that would require the New York Public Service Commission to map wireless services around the state. The Senate passed both bills last year (see 2306090052). But they returned to the Senate after the Assembly didn’t take them up.
Weighing changes to state video franchise rules, the California Public Utilities Commission scheduled four hearings on updating the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act (DIVCA) requirements. A 2021 state law required the DIVCA rulemaking (see 2306050051). A pair of in-person hearings is scheduled for Aug. 14 in Sacramento; two more will occur Sept. 5 in Monterey Park, California, the agency said Friday. Also, the CPUC will hold two virtual hearings Sept. 19, it said.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission should pause a rulemaking on incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS) until the FCC completes its rulemaking that will implement the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, said ViaPath in comments Friday at the PUC. Due to the 2022 law, "regulation of all IPCS -- intrastate, interstate, and international -- is now within the jurisdiction of the FCC,” the IPCS provider said in docket 24R-0184T. With the FCC required to finish the rulemaking by January, it “would be administratively inefficient for the [PUC] to proceed without having the benefit of the final FCC ruling on the scope of state commission jurisdiction over IPCS," ViaPath said. Separately, Securus raised concerns with the PUC possibly expanding reporting requirements beyond data on phone calls and video service complaints. “Expanding the scope of the reporting … would result in the publication of information beyond that contemplated by [law] and which [IPCS] providers have legitimate interests in maintaining as confidential and proprietary," the company said.