Missouri legislators introduced a flurry of telecom and internet bills before their 2024 session started Wednesday. Rep. Chad Perkins (R) pitched HB-1995 to delete the Jan. 1, 2025, sunset date for the state’s 2018 small-cells law (see 1806040050), which preempted local governments on right of way in an effort to streamline 5G infrastructure deployment. Rep. Ben Keathley (R) offered HB-2057, clarifying that streaming content is exempted from paying video franchise fees. Two other bills would relieve broadband’s tax obligations. HB-2142 by Rep. Ben Baker (R) would provide a tax deduction for broadband grant funds for 2022 and later tax years. HB-2168 by Rep. Aaron McMullen (R) would provide sales and use-tax exemptions for machinery and equipment that provides broadband, starting Jan. 1, 2025. Another Baker bill would ban Missouri government employees from using or downloading on a state-owned device "any social media application that is owned, in whole or in part, by the Chinese government or any company that shares its user’s data with the Chinese Communist Party.” HB-2141, which would cover TikTok, wouldn’t "apply to military or law enforcement agencies when doing so is in keeping with the fulfillment of their duties." Rep. Josh Hurlbert (R) seeks to ban TikTok on school district-owned devices and district-provided internet access. In addition, the bill would halt use of the specified social media application(s) to "promote any district school, school-sponsored club, extracurricular organization, or athletic team." HB-2157 would also require social media companies to verify users' ages and restrict minors from opening accounts without parental consent. Moreover, it would restrict them from using "a practice, design, or feature" that they know, or reasonably should know, "causes a Missouri minor account holder to have an addiction to the social media platform." The bill includes a private right of action and state attorney general enforcement. It would also require school districts to develop internet safety policies.
The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission should OK Consolidated Communications' transfer of indirect ownership and control of its northern New England and Maine subsidiaries to Condor Holdings, a subsidiary of private equity firm Searchlight, Condor and Consolidated said last week in a petition at the PUC (docket DT 23-103). The subsidiaries would continue to own their respective New Hampshire franchise, works and system after the deal is complete, it said. The agreement wouldn't “involve the transfer of the [Consolidated subsidiaries] to a new utility but instead is structured as a change of ownership at the holding company level and will not affect any of the operations or legal identities of the [subsidiaries].”
The Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) on Friday unveiled its decisions on an initial round of funding from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund. BEAM asked for public comments or objections through Jan. 22. The office proposed awards of more than $112 million to 66,328 “eligible locations” throughout the state.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Friday vetoed S-6056, which would have added access to high-speed broadband Internet service as a consideration in competitive economic development grant projects, according to New York's Senate. Meanwhile, Hochul the same day approved A-1368, which lets utilities, cable companies and telecos provide notice of bills to third parties at the customer's request, the state's Assembly said. In addition, the governor signed into law S-5410, which requires the state's websites to be mobile friendly, the Senate said.
Verizon's MCI and AT&T "are working together to ensure a transparent, efficient, and seamless transition for MCI’s customers” in California, the carriers said in a joint brief Thursday before the California Public Utilities Commission. “No additional measures need to be adopted." MCI applied Oct. 2 to discontinue LEC “service and related bundled offerings of local and interexchange voice services to residential and small business customers” across the state (see 2311090046). It would transfer customers to AT&T or a different provider that the customer chooses. MCI meets California requirements for discontinuing local exchange service, the carriers said. The Utility Reform Network seeks to work "with other parties to ensure that all MCI customers receive meaningful advance notice of the migration and information about their telephone service options,” TURN said in another brief (docket A.23-10-002). The CPUC plans a virtual status conference Jan. 8 on the MCI application, Administrative Law Judge Seaneen Wilson said Friday. In a separate proceeding Thursday, the CPUC scheduled a Feb. 9 virtual prehearing conference on possible updates to the state’s deaf and disabled telecommunications program (docket R.23-11-001).
The Colorado Transportation Commission aims to streamline broadband deployment on state land along roadways with a new fee schedule for accessing the right of way, the department said Dec. 20. Colorado will have lower rates than surrounding southwest states, it said. The schedule charges an annual property use surcharge and a one-time permitting fee, “set as low as possible to only cover some administrative costs,” the department said. The method is akin to what the U.S. Forest Service uses for accessing federal lands, it said. Broadband providers annually will pay 10 cents per foot of fiber optic line in urban counties with populations exceeding 200,000 and 3 cents per foot in rural counties. Also, they will pay a one-time charge of 5 cents per foot to cover permitting costs. “The Transportation Commission has heard the perspectives of local communities throughout the state as well as industry concerns, and the proposal that we approved today offers greater opportunities for broadband development, competes favorably with our neighboring states on costs, and meets the state’s existing legal obligations to care for the public land under our responsibility,” said Transportation Commission Chair Karen Stuart.
Connecticut is seeking comment on a draft digital equity plan released Friday. Comments on the state's proposal are due Jan. 20, the office of Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said. The Connecticut Department of Administrative Services’ Commission for Educational Technology aims to finalize the plan by the end of March, the governor’s office said. The plan’s goals include developing and promoting digital skills and technical support programs, providing affordable internet options and expanding state and local digital government services.
With less than a week before NTIA's Dec. 27 deadline, fewer than half of states and territories have submitted their full initial plan for the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, according to the agency's Wednesday update to its BEAD progress dashboard. NTIA said 20 entities filed both volumes of their initial plan, 10 more than the agency reported last Friday. So far, the agency has received just the first volume from 15 states and territories. It hasn’t received either volume from 21 others, though they all released drafts of both volumes. The NTIA update didn’t include New Jersey, where the Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday cleared staff to submit both volumes (see 2312200064). Louisiana last week became the first state to get full NTIA approval for its initial proposal (see 2312150047).
States can achieve universal broadband with a mix of fiber, fixed wireless and satellite technologies, Vernonburg Group CEO Paul Garnett said during a Wireless ISP Association webinar Thursday. Garnett demonstrated his consulting group’s broadband planning tool, which estimates an “optimal” extremely high cost per location threshold for each jurisdiction. “If you make the right decisions, you will be able to achieve your internet-for-all goals,” he said. Deploying broadband becomes increasingly expensive as a state gets closer to reaching all unserved and underserved areas, said Garnett: There are points where it makes sense to consider fiber alternatives, he said. Estimating about $53.6 billion in grant funds available across the entire U.S., including multiple federal and state sources, the tool suggests that 58% of locations should receive fiber, 38% should be served with fixed wireless and 4% should get satellite service, so all unserved and underserved locations are covered. Some states will rely more on wireless than others, Garnett said. With about $270 million in available grant funds, Maryland could serve 46% of locations with fiber, 52% with fixed wireless and 2% with satellite, according to the tool's calculations. For Utah, with about $388.6 million in grants, it estimates a mix of 67% fiber, 27% fixed wireless and 6% satellite. WISPA commissioned Vernonburg to create the tool, a WISPA spokesperson said. “[Vernonburg] did all the modeling work without deep input from us on what the outcome would be.”
Wisconsin state legislators should greenlight a new grant program supporting migration from the state’s “woefully outdated” emergency call system, Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association Executive Director Bill Esbeck said Wednesday during an Assembly State Affairs Committee hearing. The committee mulled AB-356, which directs the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs to award grants that reimburse next-generation 911 (NG-911) costs of ILECs acting as originating service providers. Covered costs would include IP-based transport, database management and the purchase, installation and maintenance of equipment. The bill would limit the department from awarding more than one grant per ILEC per fiscal year. The state’s current 911 fund, which gets revenue from a 75-cent monthly charge on customer bills, will provide enough money but doesn’t allow cost recovery after the NG-911 transition, said Esbeck. He said that five of 72 Wisconsin counties have connected to the state’s emergency services IP network, but ILECs in those places have yet to cut over to it. Wisconsin’s 2023-2025 biennial budget restricted diverting 911 fee revenue for unrelated purposes, Esbeck noted. In 2009, the state renamed its 911 money as a “police and fire protection fund” and diverted cash to a general fund, he said. The new grant program would support NG-911 only, said AB-356 sponsor Rep. Tony Kurtz (R). While future legislators or governors could change state law to resume 911 fee diversion, “I think everybody in the state understands how important this is,” he said. “We’d be very foolish to change that.”