The California Public Utilities Commission set a Dec. 13 meeting in a rulemaking to consider changes to video franchise requirements under the state’s Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act (DIVCA). The agency will consider the proceedings scope, schedule and need for evidentiary hearings during the 10 a.m. PST pre-conference hearing, said Administrative Law Judge Margery Melvin in a Wednesday ruling in docket R.23-04-006. A 2021 law revised DIVCA to require the commission to adopt video and broadband customer service requirements and adjudicate customer complaints, Melvin said. “The Commission may also consider potential ways to modernize and make the implementation of DIVCA more efficient and effective.” In comments in June, the cable industry said there’s no need to revamp how it is treated under DIVCA (see 2306050051).
Charter Communications plans to spend $1.3 billion to upgrade and expand broadband across Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Thursday. “Texans who live across the big and beautiful reaches of our great state will have the same internet access that those in big cities do,” Abbott said. Charter said in a separate news release that it plans to spend $700 million to upgrade its Texas network to provide symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds. The project will be “substantially complete” by the end of 2025, it said. Also, the cable company will spend nearly $620 million to expand the network to about 140,000 unserved and underserved locations, Charter said.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted 3-0 at a Thursday meeting to post NPRMs on amending four telecom chapters of commission rules. The notices, which weren’t available immediately, will open proceedings on revising Chapter 55 rules for telecom services (docket RM2023-000017), Chapter 56 rules for interexchange telecom service resellers (RM2023-000018), Chapter 57 rules for operator service providers telecom services (RM2023-000019) and Chapter 59 rules for Oklahoma USF and Lifeline (RM2023-000021).
Texas Public Utility Commissioners unanimously backed a sweeping update to the state’s Chapter 26 substantive telecommunications rules at a Thursday meeting. Commissioners voted 4-0 for a staff proposal posted last week in docket 54589 (see 2311210054). The Texas Telephone Association applauded the decision. “This was a significant overhaul of telecommunications rules in Texas, paired with new rules for the implementation of sweeping legislative changes earlier this year,” TTA Executive Director Mark Seale wrote in an email.
Half the 50 states submitted volume one of their initial proposals for the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, said NTIA’s Wednesday update to its proposal progress dashboard. Six states submitted both volumes, it said.
The Utah Public Service Commission will decide by March 17 on Lumen’s petition for a statewide exemption from carrier of last resort (COLR) requirements for new customers, according to a its order Tuesday. Under the amended schedule, dispositive motions could be filed by Dec. 27. If motions aren't filed, the PSC plans to hold an evidentiary hearing Jan. 31 at 9 a.m. MST and a public witness hearing the same day at 5:30 p.m. MST. Utah’s consumer advocate last October opposed relieving Lumen’s CenturyLink of COLR obligations (see 2310200066).
Noting a lack of objections to proposed tweaks to South Carolina USF rules, the state’s Office of Regulatory Staff urged the Public Service Commission on Tuesday to grant its petition in docket 2023-301-C. ORS asked to clarify certain USF procedures, including by specifically listing interconnected VoIP providers as USF contributors, incorporating a South Carolina confidentiality law and adding a deadline for contributors to dispute required contributions (see 2309280010). In the same petition, ORS seeks a waiver of USF guidelines so it can provide a refund to Cox subsidiary Palmetto Net for overreporting assessable revenue in a 2022 worksheet, which resulted in an overpayment.
Kansas awarded $28.5 million for high-speed internet infrastructure through the state’s Lasting Infrastructure and Network Connectivity (LINC) program, Gov. Laura Kelly (D) said Wednesday. It will fund projects bringing users at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds, as well as middle mile and an internet exchange point, the governor’s office said. Connected Nation received a $5 million grant, with a $2.6 million match, for an internet exchange point in Sedgwick, Kansas. The largest broadband infrastructure awards went to local entities, including $4.2 million to KwiKom, $3.9 million to IdeaTek and $3 million to the Prairie Band Pottawatomi Nation. On Monday, Kelly said the state awarded $5 million in Kansas broadband acceleration grants to eight ISPs that will add $6.6 million in matching funds. The biggest recipients were Kansas ISPs KwiKom ($1.4 million) and IdeaTek ($1 million).
The Nebraska Public Service Commission unanimously adopted state USF and telecom service quality orders Tuesday. The PSC will use the FCC's broadband data collection (BDC) as the replacement for Form 477 data that the state commission previously used to determine broadband availability in each census block, said the Nebraska USF order in docket NUSF-139. Previously, some rural telcos raised concerns about relying on BDC data for NUSF high-cost distributions (see 2310020062). The PSC understands "concerns that, as a newer data source, the BDC data and challenge process may still need corrections," but it expects that many past issues were corrected in the Nov. 17 broadband fabric update, it said. The PSC will provide its own challenge mechanism to "allow carriers to correct any missing broadband serviceable locations or correct any other misidentified information appearing in the FCC’s updated broadband availability data,” it said. Relying on the FCC challenge process wouldn’t be as quick, it said. The PSC decided to retain a 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds benchmark for determining which census blocks are eligible for broadband deployment support in 2024. However, the agency noted it still considers speeds between 25/3Mbps and 100/20 Mbps as underserved, and that NUSF support recipients must provide at least 100/100 Mbps. Also, the PSC adopted a payment structure for NUSF broadband buildout support that aligns with its National Broadband Bridge Program and Capital Projects Fund programs. Commissioners also agreed 5-0 to adopt a service quality order requiring price cap carriers Lumen, Windstream and Frontier Communications to refresh the record by Jan. 5 on repair and replacement timelines, dispatch procedures and how many technicians they have on staff (docket C-5303). The companies’ previous answers to those questions -- first asked in an August 2021 order -- failed to alleviate the PSC’s concerns, and the commission keeps getting consumer complaints, it said. The PSC scheduled a hearing on the matter for Jan. 17 at 1:30 p.m. CST.
North Carolina is seeking to streamline pole replacements to speed broadband deployment, the state’s Department of Information Technology said Monday. The department’s broadband and digital equity division posted final guidance for North Carolina’s pole replacement program. The state broadband office will seek applications for $100 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to reimburse some of a communications provider’s pole replacement costs in unserved areas. The program will launch Feb. 1 and the office plans to offer reimbursements for applications submitted through Dec. 31, 2024. Providers may seek reimbursement for eligible expenses dating back to June 1, 2021, the state said.