States should avoid creating a patchwork of competition laws that could stifle tech investment, the Computer and Communications Industry Association said Friday. CCIA found many states recently considered bills to revise antitrust laws and regulate app stores. “Since industry operates across multiple state borders, proposals at the state level to create disparate approaches to competition issues could impact innovation and create new barriers to entry,” CCIA State Policy Director Khara Boender said.

The Treasury Department allocated a combined $793.7 million in broadband money from the American Rescue Plan Act Thursday to Alabama, Kentucky, Nevada and Texas. That money, from the Capital Projects Fund, includes almost $363.8 million for Texas, $191.7 million for Alabama, $182.8 million for Kentucky and $55.2 million for Nevada, Treasury said.

Nobody opposed reducing inmate call rates at a Montana House Judiciary hearing livestreamed Tuesday. The committee didn’t vote on SB-7, which passed the Senate 49-0 earlier this month. The bill would allow county jails to join state prison contracts or create their own contract if they don’t charge more than the current per-minute rate allowed by the FCC -- or 21 cents at most. Also, the bill would allow inmates one 10-minute phone and one 25-minute video call for free each week. And it would put a 3% cap on ancillary service fees including prepaid phone cards and collect calls. Calls now can cost more than 60 cents per minute, and fees can be 10%-20%, said sponsor Sen. Tom McGillvray (R): “That makes it very difficult …. when you’re broke and have no way to make money to communicate.” There were “no rails” on charges before SB-7, said committee member Rep. Greg Kmetz (R). Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officer Association lobbyist Brian Thompson said SB-7 would set a “very reasonable rate that's going to provide benefits to inmates throughout the state." The bill “promotes fairness,” said American Civil Liberties Union-Montana lobbyist Robin Turner. Communication is important for inmates to rebuild their lives, and it can reduce recidivism, she said.

Maryland’s digital ad tax is “punitive at every turn,” but the U.S. District Court in Baltimore refused to exercise its “duty” to review the constitutional challenges to the levy, said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s opening brief Tuesday (docket 22-2275) at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Chamber is appealing the district court’s March decision dismissing businesses’ challenge of the tax and its Dec. 2 dismissal of their challenge to the tax’s pass-through ban (see 2212160050). NetChoice and CCIA are co-appellants. The lower court "should have resolved the merits of appellants' claims and entered final judgment in their favor," it said. The 4th Circuit "should reverse and remand with instructions to do so," it said.

The telecom industry sought changes Tuesday to a Connecticut agency’s plan to establish an application and approval process for conduit excavations in highways, streets or other public rights of way by telecom and broadband providers. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) plans to vote Feb. 8 on the proposal in docket 21-12-21 (see 2301100075). Frontier Communications raised concerns the draft “may create possible unintended complications and delays with the placement of ‘conduit laterals’ -- a conduit from a manhole to a nearby pole and/or customer building or location where the planned excavation involves open trenching and requires either a [Connecticut Transportation Department (CTDOT)] or municipality permit.” Frontier said requiring 90 days' notice “will take a straightforward and limited excavation and turn it into” an up-to-four months' “waiting period for customers to receive broadband service.” PURA’s final decision should confirm emergency work should be exempted from a requirement to file an application and wait 30 days, said the New England Connectivity and Telecommunications Association. The current proposal exempts such work from notification but not from the application process, NECTA said. Also, PURA should clarify that cable-in-conduit and “directional boring deployments may commence upon the filing of an application,” it said. PURA’s interpretation including telecom service providers as providers or applicants is contrary to the state’s Broadband Act, said Crown Castle. That law’s Section 5(b) violates the federal Telecom Act’s Section 253(a) “because it imposes significant costs and compensation requirements that are not limited to allowing the State to recover its cost of right of way management,” it said. State departments also filed exceptions to the PURA draft. CTDOT “wants to be sure” PURA and providers understand it doesn’t allow micro-trenching or cable-in-conduit, “nor any conduit installation method that places conduit closer than 36 inches to the surface,” on state highways, it commented. A 90-day notice period should apply “under all circumstances in the application process,” said the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Currently, the PURA draft proposes notification to CTDOT or a municipality 90 days before construction but 30 days in other circumstances.

The Voice on the Net Coalition was represented at Tuesday's California Public Utilities Commission prehearing conference by Pillsbury attorney Glenn Richards (see 2301240058).

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska seeks comment on a T-Mobile application to transfer a certificate of public convenience and necessity from Sprint to T-Mobile, RCA said Monday. T-Mobile filed the application due to organizational changes resulting from the recent merger, which the Alaska commission approved. T-Mobile sought expedited treatment with a final decision by Feb. 28. Comments are due by Feb. 7 in docket U-23-002.

The Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition disputed California’s authority to apply service quality metrics to VoIP, it said in reply comments posted Monday at the California Public Utilities Commission in docket R.22-03-016. The VoIP trade group agreed with many companies’ December comments opposing service-quality metrics for non-copper networks (see 2212220052). “VON joins the vast majority of commenters that question the authority of the Commission to adopt, and the need for, VoIP service quality objectives,” the VoIP association commented Friday. Comments supporting new rules "fail to acknowledge the differences between VoIP and traditional phone services that make the existing metrics inapplicable to an application that travels over the Internet, via a customer-procured broadband connection and customer-provided equipment.” it said. Applying the metrics to the wireless industry probably will harm consumers, CTIA said. “There is simply no factual or policy basis -- much less any legal basis." The need for the CPUC to set minimum standards for wireless, VoIP and broadband “is based on the record of consumer complaints detailing service quality issues and the continued underperformance of communications service providers as it relates to these services,” responded the state agency’s independent Public Advocates Office. Competition isn't enough to keep service quality high, said PAO. "California customers lack a choice of whom their communications service provider is,” especially for high-speed broadband. CPUC Administrative Law Judge Camille Watts-Zagha held a prehearing conference by telephone Tuesday in a separate rulemaking (docket R.22-08-008) on changes to licensing requirements and other obligations for internet-based voice (see 2211010010). “Our biggest concern in the proceeding is if it goes beyond the issue of market entry and simple registration,” and the order opening the docket indicates that it might, said BRB attorney Patrick Rosvall, representing Frontier and Consolidated. The state is preempted from regulating any service that can be used over more than one broadband connection, said Pillsbury’s Glenn Richards for the VON Coalition.

Missouri awarded $261 million to 60 broadband expansion projects using American Rescue Plan Act funding, said Gov. Mike Parson (R) Monday. The state expects the funded projects to expand 100 Mbps symmetrical internet to 55,000 locations, the governor’s office said. The largest awards went to White River Valley Electric Cooperative ($47.4 million), Chariton Valley Communications ($43.4 million) and Gateway Infrastructure ($25.4 million).

A Virginia bill to ban TikTok on state government devices cleared the House Communications Committee by a 12-10 vote at a livestreamed hearing Monday. HB-2385 by Chair Emily Brewer (R) would effectively codify an executive order by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). All Democratic committee members opposed the bill, including Del. Marcus Simon, who said he understood Republicans’ desire to chase a “big red menace” for political points. Del. Daniel Helmer (D) raised concerns about anti-Asian discrimination. Brewer bristled, saying TikTok has real ties to the Chinese government. The federal government (see 2212270051) and more than 20 states (see 2301120048) have banned TikTok on government devices.