New Hampshire ILECs could seek relief of carrier of last resort obligations at the state energy department, under a bill passed Wednesday by the House. State lawmakers passed an amended HB-257 in a voice vote. The department must approve the petition if it finds at least one alternative wireline facilities-based voice provider with service to at least 95% of a municipality’s households and at least one mobile telecom provider with service to at least 97% of households there. Or the department could approve the petition if it finds at least one provider other than the ILEC received state, federal or local funding for the entire municipality.

The Vermont House agreed to extend a state telecom siting process by three years Wednesday. H-110 would extend the sunset on the 2007-established Section 248(a) procedure until July 1, 2026, while making no changes to the process (see 2303160049). The bill goes next to the Senate.

Governors signed bills on TikTok, telemarketing and streaming TV this week. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed SB-20 to ban TikTok on state devices Wednesday. The bill passed the legislature last week with exemptions for public postsecondary education institutions and executive branch agencies that determine using TikTok is necessary for law enforcement activities, civil investigations or enforcement activities, or research on security practices or threats (see 2303160025). The Idaho legislature passed a TikTok ban earlier this week (see 2303220031). Mississippi telemarketing oversight will move to the attorney general’s office from the Public Service Commission. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) Wednesday signed HB-1225, transferring all telephone solicitation administrative, investigative and enforcement duties to the state AG, effective July 1. Satellite and streaming TV aren’t video services that must pay franchise fees, said a Tennessee bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Bill Lee (R). HB-487 by Rep. Clark Boyd (R) earlier passed the House and Senate in near-unanimous votes.

A Senate panel advanced a bill to end a 2005 state ban on municipal broadband. The Senate Local Government Committee voted 5-0 Thursday to send SB-183 to the floor, at a webcast hearing. Colorado’s broadband office and local governments supported the measure. SB-183 would repeal many parts of the state ban known as SB-152, which could inhibit the state from spending federal money if they remained, said sponsor Sen. Kevin Priola (R). The bill will help Colorado achieve 99% broadband access by 2027, he said. Even those who supported the 2015 law support SB-183, said another sponsor, Sen. Mark Baisley (R). Local ballot votes to opt out of SB-152 are often successful but costly, said Colorado Municipal League legislative advocate Jaclyn Terwey, supporting the bill. Fears that local governments would compete with ISPs haven’t come to pass, said attorney Ken Fellman, representing the Colorado Communications & Utility Alliance. Local governments want to help the private sector with broadband costs through partnerships, he said. Unless passed, counties and municipalities that haven't opted out could be ineligible for federal funding, said Colorado Broadband Office Executive Director Brandy Reitter. The bill includes some protections to avoid unfair competition, said Colorado Cable Telecommunications Association Executive Director Jeff Weist. He said the industry group is officially neutral on the bill.

The District of Columbia still fails to meet national 911 standards, D.C. Auditor Kathleen Patterson said Thursday. The auditor released a second update to an October 2021 report on the D.C. Office of Unified Communications (OUC). In 99,000 priority medical calls from September 2021 through August 2022, OUC failed to comply with national standards for time to answer “for roughly half the time and was not in compliance with the 60-second answer-to-notification requirement at any time,” wrote Patterson in a cover letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D). "Even more serious than failure to meet these national standards is the agency’s failure to be accurate and transparent in describing after-action reviews of the July 3 and Aug. 9 incidents when young District residents Sevyn Schatzman-Chase and Aaron Boyd, Jr., respectively, lost their lives. In one case OUC failed to acknowledge that the call taker recorded the wrong address after the correct address had been displayed on a locator map.” Thursday’s report said OUC completed seven of 31 recommendations in the October 2021 audit, made partial headway on 17 and “minimal progress” on seven. In a March 10 response to a draft report, acting Director Heather McGaffin said OUC "made great strides to implement the recommendations" since the auditor's September update: “I simultaneously acknowledge there is still work to be done.” OUC believes it completed 23 recommendations and expects to finish the remaining eight by summer's end, she said. McGaffin noted 911 call volume keeps increasing. Patterson wrote Thursday she's “concerned that the most recent accounting by the agency appears to significantly overstate actions taken” since the September status report. McGaffin, Bower’s nominee to be OUC’s permanent director, pledged at a confirmation hearing last week to improve processes and be more transparent (see 2303150071).

North Dakota House appropriators wrestled with how to pay for 988 after legislators stripped a proposed 30-cent fee on phone bills from a funding bill (SB-2149). Industry opposed the surcharge, which would have applied to landline and postpaid cellphones, Rep. Craig Headland (R) said at a livestreamed House Appropriations Committee hearing Thursday. “The pushback ... was that those bills are already loaded up with fees.” North Dakota Public Service Chairman Randy Christmann (R) shared similar concerns with lawmakers, said Headland. The bill now proposes a $2 million appropriation from the general fund, but the authors “still don’t know what the right number is,” conceded Headland: A 30-cent fee would have generated about $4.2 million. Committee member John Nelson (D) suggested funding the program through the health and human services budget at an even smaller amount: “We need another $2 million added to that budget about as badly as we need more snow in Bismarck right now.” North Dakota must make sure it adequately funds 988, said Rep. Karla Hanson (D): “North Dakota has a huge suicide problem.”

The Oregon Public Utility Commission rejected Lumen’s challenge to an October decision during a service-quality probe. The PUC said Wednesday it upheld the order in docket UM 1908 to keep existing Lumen residential rates and follow reporting and complaint resolution guidelines while the PUC probed phone and internet outages reported by customers in the Jacksonville area (see 2210120045). “As a carrier of last resort, Lumen is required to provide safe and reliable service to all its customers and this is particularly important when health and safety issues exist,” said Commissioner Letha Tawney. “The PUC’s investigation was launched as these families in the Jacksonville area continue to experience service quality and reliability issues with their landline voice service, which is a public safety concern. Upholding the decision enables the PUC to continue to track Lumen’s progress in making service quality improvements for customers in this area.” Lumen declined to comment.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed a bill Tuesday to require online safety education for children. HB-1575 sets up an internet safety advisory council to advance the media literacy effort.

State legislators advanced several telecom and internet bills Tuesday. New York state senators voted 42-20 Tuesday for a wireless tower bill that would require cellphone companies and third-party infrastructure companies to submit plans to power all their towers with 100% renewable energy by 2031. S-4305 will go to the Assembly. Republicans raised concerns about the bill at a hearing last month (see 2302280043). Also that day, the Senate advanced to a final floor vote a bill (S-5343) to require telecom companies to report on the quality of copper-wire services (see 2303160053). An Idaho bill to ban TikTok on state government devices passed both legislative chambers. The Senate voted 32-0 Tuesday for HB-274. The House passed it earlier this month 67-3. Similar bills in Georgia and Missouri advanced earlier this week (see 2303210047). In Tennessee, the House and Senate’s Commerce Committee advanced cross-filed privacy bills HB-1811 and SB-73 and cross-filed bills SB-1338 and HB-1211 to update Tennessee’s broadband speed standard to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. The comprehensive privacy bill would be enforced solely by the attorney general and includes a 60-day right to cure. Among other rule changes, the broadband bill would require grant-eligible projects to provide at least 100/20 Mbps, up from 10/1 Mbps under current law. The state also would have to prioritize locations with less than 100/20Mbps, up from 10/1 Mbps. In Florida, a House panel supported applying state pole-attachment rules to electric cooperatives. The Communications Committee cleared HB-1221 on Tuesday. A Senate panel advanced its similar SB-626 earlier this month with support from Charter Communications (see 2303070073). Florida reverse-preempted FCC pole-attachment authority last year (see 2206070071), allowing the state to regulate attachments and resolve disputes. The House bill still needs approval from two more committees before it can go to the floor.

Industry including NetChoice and CTIA slammed a Montana obscenity filter bill at a livestreamed hearing Wednesday. HB-349, which would require smartphones to have obscenity filters on by default, has constitutional problems, said NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo. Only Utah has passed the law, and it won’t take effect until five more states do the same, he said. A better model would be a Louisiana law requiring pornographers to collect identification from users, said Szabo. HB-349 sponsor Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway (R) said she’s “frustrated” opponents didn’t come to her earlier to propose the Louisiana approach if it’s such a good idea. Requiring obscenity filters to be on by default isn’t hard to implement, she said. Vice Chair Willis Curdy (D) asked how Szabo could say the Louisiana law is working when it’s been in effect for only three months. Sen. Christopher Pope (D) thinks a big hole in HB-349 is that it covers only phones and not computers, he said. Rep. Terry Moore (R) testified in support, calling HB-349 “a simple measure that respects free speech." Project Stand Director-Public Policy Erin Walker said parents can easily override the restriction proposed by the bill. “This is not overregulation.” Tennessee senators punted a similar bill earlier this week (see 2303200068). The Computer & Communications Industry Association opposed Idaho, Montana and Tennessee filter bills, in written comments this week. “Requiring a state-specific content filter would be technically infeasible for businesses to implement as manufacturers produce devices at the national -- not state -- level,” said CCIA State Policy Director Khara Boender.