The New York Senate Standing Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions voted unanimously Tuesday to advance to the floor S-1693, which would create a digital equity fund in the state.

The California Public Utilities Commission seeks comment on a Communications Division staff report on outages, the agency said Monday. The commission asked if its service quality standards in General Order 133-D should apply to VoIP and wireless and if the CPUC’s penalty mechanism has been effective. Also, the CPUC seeks input on data sources used for the report. Comments are due May 18, replies June 2 (docket R.22-03-016). Industry previously bristled at the possibility of applying California service-quality metrics to VoIP and wireless (see 2301240058). Also Monday, the CPUC released its order instituting a rulemaking (docket R.23-04-006) for a video franchise rulemaking (see 2304070014).

State and local coordination will be key to covering New Jersey with broadband, said government officials at the state’s internet-for-all workshop Monday. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) will be the "gatekeepers on where this money goes throughout the state, and if we don't work with them, that means some other states are getting our money,” said Piscataway Township Mayor Brian Wahler (D) at the partially virtual event. The New Jersey League of Municipalities past president stressed the need for a good relationship. “Work with the BPU for once,” he urged local governments. “They're not the enemy, they're actually going to be the saviors here to get the broadband to us.” BPU Broadband Director Valarry Bullard said “2023 is the year of planning,” which “requires a commitment from all industries.” High-speed internet is new to the BPU, acknowledged Chief of Staff Taryn Boland. "We've traditionally been focused on gas, electric, water, telco and cable, and now we are dipping our toes in the broadband water.” In its national role overseeing Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act broadband funding, NTIA will be looking for state plans that show coordination with local governments, noted Administrator Alan Davidson in recorded remarks: "It is local community leaders ... who will know best how to solve this problem.”

NetChoice urged veto after Montana’s legislature Friday passed a bill to ban TikTok for everyone in the state. The Senate voted 54-43 for SB-419. The bill, which requires a signature from Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) to become law, would ban the social media platform from operating in Montana and ban mobile app stores from making TikTok available for download. The bill was amended before passage to remove an initially proposed restriction on ISPs allowing the service. Entities would have to pay $100,000 for each discrete violation and would be liable for another $10,000 for each day afterward that the violation continued. If signed, the Montana measure would take effect Jan. 1. Gianforte “should veto this plainly unconstitutional bill,” NetChoice General Counsel Carl Szabo said. Previous state TikTok bans were limited to government equipment. SB-419 would set “a dangerous precedent that the government can ban any business it doesn’t like without clear evidence of wrongdoing,” he said. NetChoice cited the Constitution’s Article I prohibition on bills of attainder that allow the government to punish a specific entity without formal trial. Also, the proposed law would violate the First Amendment by restricting people from sharing and receiving speech, it said.

“The copper network is as obsolete as typewriters and VHS tapes,” declared AT&T in a Monday response to consumer groups opposing the carrier’s petition for carrier-of-last-resort regulation relief at the California Public Utilities Commission. Most consumers moved to mobile and fixed wireless from plain old telephone service, it said in docket A.23-03-003. “Nonetheless, legacy COLR requirements still compel AT&T California, alone among its competitors, to maintain the copper network for the small and decreasing percentage of consumers who still use it -- and to do so at great economic and environmental cost. Every other state in AT&T’s wireline footprint gave the carrier “substantial, if not total, COLR relief,” it added. Public advocates and rural counties raised concerns with the AT&T petition (see 2304070018 and 2304040030).

Indiana’s privacy bill passed the legislature. The Senate voted 47-0 Thursday to concur with changes by the House, which passed SB-5 earlier that week (see 2304120015). With a signature by Gov. Eric Holcomb (R), Indiana could become the seventh state with a comprehensive privacy bill, following Iowa last month. Or it might be Tennessee, where a bill passed the House last week (see 2304110031). The Tennessee Senate was scheduled to take up SB-73 Thursday but didn’t vote and now will consider it Monday. Consumer Reports seeks Holcomb's veto because it says the Indiana bill lacks teeth, doesn't support a global opt-out mechanism and contains weak definitions of sale and targeted advertising. “Bad privacy bills are the trend this year,” CR policy analyst Matt Schwartz said Friday. “This bill contains too many provisions that conform to the wishes of the biggest privacy violators.” Indiana’s bill is most like Virginia’s privacy law, Husch Blackwell privacy attorney David Stauss blogged Thursday. It’s “more business-friendly than the Colorado and Connecticut laws but more consumer-friendly than the Utah and Iowa laws,” he said. The Iowa and Indiana measures “are not the most restrictive of the bunch,” blogged Parker Poe lawyers Friday. “However, the growing number of nuances among state privacy laws can make compliance burdensome.”

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders (R) signed a bill requiring age verification and parental consent to use social media (SB-396), the governor’s office said Thursday. It applies only to new accounts and requires kids under 18 to get parental consent to set up profiles on platforms that have at least $100 million annual revenue. NetChoice slammed the signing. “Age-verification requirements raise privacy concerns, adversely stifle freedom of speech online and pose serious First Amendment problems,” said General Counsel Carl Szabo. “It’s concerning to see states enacting proposals that will undermine constitutional protections while they’re trying to make a good-faith effort to protect minors online.” Utah enacted a similar law this year (see 2303240035). The Computer & Communications Industry Association "shares concerns about the safety of younger users online," but SB-396 creates other privacy problems, said CCIA State Policy Director Khara Boender. The law runs counter to data minimization principles, and "tying the verification of users to liability creates an incentive to store such data for longer periods of time," she said. The law's ban on storing such data "puts businesses in a Catch-22 to comply and not have proof that they ... verified the user's age or to not comply ... but be able to prove they complied with the verification measures," added Boender.

A Colorado bill to end a 2005 state ban on municipal broadband cleared the House Local Government Committee. The panel voted 11-0 for SB-183 at a hearing Wednesday. The full House plans to consider the bill Friday. The Senate voted 31-4 last month to pass the measure, which would repeal many parts of the Colorado ban known as SB-152 (see 2303230076).

Golden State Connect Authority announced a partnership with Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) Fiber to deploy open-access municipal broadband in rural California, the authority said Wednesday. Under the partnership, UTOPIA will handle network design and engineering, project and construction management, plus ongoing operational support including marketing, billing and customer service, the authority said. The authority is currently identifying project locations to install fiber, it said. The network’s open-access model means that multiple ISPs will use the same network to provide service, it said.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed an anti-robocalls bill Wednesday aimed at fighting automated calls and texts. HB-2498 received nearly universal support in the legislature. Also that day, the Montana House concurred with the Senate on a local internet bill (SB-174) that would allow state agencies and political subdivisions to provide funding to private broadband service providers. The bill next needs a signature from Gov. Greg Gianforte (R). The Tennessee Senate voted 33-0 Wednesday to pass a bill that would make changes to broadband laws including raising the state's minimum broadband speed standard to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, from 10/1 Mbps. The House previously passed HB-1211. Meanwhile in Texas, the Senate voted 31-0 Wednesday to pass a bill (SB-1425) that would extend a Sept. 1 sunset on USF support for small telcos until Sept. 1, 2033. On Thursday, the Senate added a bill (SB-1893) that would ban TikTok on state government devices to the local and uncontested calendar, which is reserved for noncontroversial bills. Virginia's TikTok ban bill passed the legislature a second time Wednesday after lawmakers agreed to a slight wording change recommended by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin (see 2303280042). The Missouri House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee voted 13-1 Wednesday to clear HB-492, which would require a pilot program for schools to teach media literacy including for social media content.