NTIA approved Kansas, Nevada and West Virginia initial proposals for the $42.5 billion broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, the federal agency said Thursday. Approval of the second volume of the states' plans lets them request access to their BEAD allocations of $451.7 million, $416.6 million and $1.2 billion, respectively. They “have created strong plans -- reflecting their unique needs -- to deploy reliable, affordable high-speed Internet service across their states,” NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said. NTIA has approved both volumes of the initial plan for four states. The agency cleared Louisiana in December (see 2312150047).
Colorado could soon be the fourth state with a right-to-repair law covering consumer electronics. The state's Senate voted 21-13 on Wednesday in favor of HB-1121, which was opposed by industry groups including CTIA, CTA and TechNet. The House passed the bill in a 39-18 vote on March 12. It still requires a signature from Gov. Jared Polis (D). Colorado previously enacted right-to-repair laws covering powered wheelchairs and farm equipment.
California should “provide temporary bridge funding for two years through” the state LifeLine program to "mitigate harm to low-income consumers from" the impending end of the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP), consumer advocates said Tuesday at the California Public Utilities Commission. The Utility Reform Network and the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office sought “limited modifications” to an October 2020 CPUC decision on LifeLine-specific support amounts and minimum service standards. The groups proposed allowing LifeLine participants to temporarily apply state and federal low-income benefits to a standalone wireline broadband service, while the CPUC considers a long-term answer. Urging the CPUC to act quickly, the groups additionally filed a motion to halve the typical required time to respond to their petition to 15 days, which would make comments due May 8. The groups recently sought modification to other past CPUC decisions due to ACP expected end (see 2404230020). But the cable industry has raised concerns (see 2404230020).
Colorado state senators unanimously backed a kids’ privacy bill on Tuesday. Senators voted 33-0 to send SB-41 to the House. The bill would update the Colorado Privacy Act to increase protections for minors younger than 13. In addition, the bill would ban controllers from selling a minor’s data or using it for targeted advertising or profiling unless they obtain consent from a parent or legal guardian.
The Missouri House offered unanimous support for keeping the state’s small-cells law. On a 151-0 vote Monday, lawmakers approved HB-1995, which would extend the 2018 law’s expiration date by five years to 2030. The small-cells law preempted local governments on right of way to try to streamline 5G infrastructure deployment. The Senate Commerce Committee advanced the similar SB-1411 during a meeting last month (see 2403260022).
Georgia will stop kids younger than 16 from getting social media accounts without parental consent. Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a mandatory age-verification bill (SB-351) on Tuesday despite tech industry groups seeking a veto (see 2404020055). “As social media has taken more and more room in our young people’s lives, we have seen increases in mental health struggles and other negative behaviors and attitudes,” Kemp said. “We cannot continue to sit by and do nothing as young Georgians develop addictions and disorders and suffer at the hands of online antagonists.” However, NetChoice General Counsel Carl Szabo said the law “breaches Georgians’ privacy, endangers security, violates constitutional rights, and creates a one-size-fits all ‘solution’ that erases parents.”
No “good cause” exists to shorten time to respond to a petition related to the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) ending, the California Broadband & Video Association (CalBroadband) said Monday in a filing at the California Public Utilities Commission. The Utility Reform Network (TURN) last week asked the CPUC to pause awarding grants and quickly modify grant rules to ensure service remains affordable after ACP ends (see 2404150062). Since TURN’s proposal “would fundamentally change” the CPUC’s 2022 decision adopting Infrastructure Grant Account rules, parties should have the full 30 days to respond that CPUC rules require, CalBroadband said. The cable association foreshadowed that it will ask the CPUC to deny TURN’s petition and move quickly to grant pending infrastructure grant applications.
Don’t interpret the quiet to mean no work is being done on 911 redundancy, Frontier Communications said in a Friday letter to the West Virginia Public Service Commission. The carrier responded to the West Virginia E911 Council complaining in an April 8 letter that neither Frontier nor the West Virginia Department of Emergency Management has shown the council a feasible and affordable way to solve diversity and redundancy problems for the state’s 51 public safety answering points. The council urged the PSC to open a general investigation in response to its complaint in case 23-0921-T-C about 911 outages (see 2312070015). However, replying Friday, Frontier said its work with the department “is currently in the stages of proof of concept” and the department has asked the company to keep information confidential.
The Colorado General Assembly supported permanent high-cost support on Friday. The House, which had earlier passed HB-1234, voted 58-2 Friday to concur with Senate amendments and 51-9 to pass the bill a second time. The bill would indefinitely extend the state's high-cost support mechanism, which provides subsidies to a dozen rural telecom providers and is scheduled to sunset Sept. 1. The Senate passed the bill last week (see 2404160026). Also that day, the House voted 58-2 to concur with Senate amendments and 51-9 to repass a kids’ social media bill (HB-1136). It would require the state’s education department to create elementary and secondary school curricula on social media’s mental health issues (see 2404120013). Gov. Jared Polis (D) will consider the bills next. Meanwhile, the Colorado Senate voted 33-0 to approve a biometric data privacy bill (HB-1130) and 19-14 in favor of a 911 bill (SB-139). The House previously passed HB-1130 but must concur with Senate changes. The House hasn’t considered SB-139, which would create an additional state 911 fee (See 2404160036).
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) supported a broadband bill aimed at streamlining providers’ access to public rights of way (ROW). On Thursday, Kelly signed HB-2588, which would apply to counties rules on nondiscrimination and neutrality that cities already use. Internet providers supported a similar bill at a Feb. 29 hearing (see 2402290044).