Mississippi’s broadband office is “extremely busy” putting a challenge together in time for the Jan. 13 deadline to correct the FCC’s national broadband map, said Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi Director Sally Doty on a Broadband.Money webinar Friday. Another month would help, said Doty, saying the winter holidays made the current compressed time frame even more difficult and noting Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., wrote a letter seeking more time. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said last month that NTIA was evaluating states’ concerns with the map challenge deadline (see 2212200060).

Nebraska legislators may consider allowing municipal broadband. Sen. Justin Wayne (D) introduced a bill (LB-26) Thursday that would allow municipal broadband on a retail or wholesale basis within its own jurisdiction if located in an underserved or unserved area. “A municipality may initiate the process of developing a broadband network by conducting a feasibility study and ordering the preparation of a resolution of intent to develop such broadband network … by a vote of the majority of the members of the governing body of the municipality,” it said. Under a separate state bill (LB-63) introduced Thursday by Sen. Eliot Bostar (D), Nebraska would withhold state USF support from any telecom company using equipment or services deemed to pose a national security threat. The proposed law would rely on a list published by the FCC Public Safety Bureau. Another Nebraska bill introduced Thursday would authorize licensing of dark fiber by any state agency or political subdivision. LB-61 by Sen. Tom Brandt (R) would also eliminate Nebraska Public Service Commission jurisdiction over certain violations and appeals.

Georgia tagged $234 million for broadband expansion through 29 preliminary grant awards using U.S. Treasury Capital Projects Fund dollars, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said Wednesday. The state awarded 12 ISPs, including large companies, electric cooperatives and a local Georgia telco, Kemp’s office said. Cable companies and Windstream got nearly three-quarters of the cash: Comcast got about $57 million, Charter Communications about $49.5 million, Windstream about $34.9 million and Mediacom about $28.4 million.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission seeks applications for two telecom affordability programs funded by USF, the PSC said Wednesday. Applications for the $500,000 nonprofit access and $250,000 Lifeline outreach grant programs are due March 1, the PSC said. The first program is for nonprofits to propose affordable access projects for low-income households, people with disabilities and customers in high-cost areas. The programs “are fundamental to the PSC’s mission of ensuring equitable access to telecommunications services for all Wisconsinites,” said Chairperson Rebecca Cameron Valcq.

Archtop Fiber agreed to acquire Hancock Telephone, a family-owned telco in Hancock, New York, Archtop said Thursday. Under the stock purchase agreement, Archtop will provide broadband and phone services to New York’s Delaware County and northeastern Pennsylvania, it said. Archtop expects to close the deal in early 2023, pending regulatory approvals, it said. Archtop agreed in November to acquire New York-based GTel.

Ohio banned holding a cellphone while driving. Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed a distracted driving bill (SB-288) Monday, his office said. The law designates use of cellphones and other electronic communications devices while driving as a primary offense for all drivers and allows the police to immediately pull over violators. Under a previous law, distracted driving was a primary offense only for juvenile drivers; adults could be pulled only over if they were also committing another primary violation like speeding. The law takes effect in 90 days and there will be a six-month grace period in which violators only get warnings. After that, penalties include a maximum $150 fine for the first offense, plus two points on their license unless the violator completes a distracted driving safety course. “Too many people are willing to risk their lives while behind the wheel to get a look at their phones," said DeWine: The governor hopes SB-288 “will prompt a cultural shift around distracted driving that normalizes the fact that distracted driving is dangerous, irresponsible, and just as deadly as driving drunk.”

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) is proposing legislation to toughen the state’s rules against robocalls, he said Wednesday. The Robocall Scam Protection Act (HB 105), sponsored by state legislator Rep. Mari Leavitt (D), would make it a violation of the Consumer Protection Act to robocall those on the do-not-call registry, spoof ID or “knowingly facilitate illegal robocalls if you are a voice service provider,” the release said. “Addressing the gap in protections to root out these scams is the least we can do to protect our fellow Washingtonians,” said Leavitt in the release, which compares the bill to similar laws passed in Florida and Oklahoma. The bill would preserve the use of automatic dialers by businesses to contact their existing customers, customers who consented, and customers with whom they have an established business relationship, “as long as the sales message itself is delivered by a live person,” the release said. The bill would also allow for civil litigation against telecom providers, with damages of up to $1,000 per violation, the release said. The state legislature “must give Washingtonians stronger and clearer legal protections against the daily bombardment of illegal robocalls -- and provide additional tools to my office to hold bad actors accountable,” said Ferguson in the release.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce moved Tuesday to accelerate by a week the briefing schedule in its challenge of Maryland’s digital ad tax, citing the “federal constitutional rights at stake and the harms that will follow from further delay.” The motion (docket 22-2275) calls for the opening brief and appendix to be pushed up to Jan. 17, from Jan. 24, and the answering brief to Feb. 16 from Feb. 23, with the reply brief due March 6. The change in briefing schedule would be sufficient to ensure that briefing is complete at least four weeks in advance of a May oral argument, avoiding further delay “and the attendant damage to appellants’ members’ rights,” the motion said. The state does not consent to the relief requested. The Chamber is appealing the U.S. District Court of Maryland's March decision dismissing businesses' challenge of the tax and the district court's Dec. 2 dismissal of their challenge to the tax's pass-through ban. The pass-through provision is having a “serious chilling effect on what appellants’ members tell their clients on invoices and account statements,” said the motion. Companies have made estimated payments under the ad tax and many will “continue to do so until the legal status of the law is finally resolved,” it said, “yet they remain barred from identifying any corresponding price increases as line-items or separate fees on their customer communications.”

A recommendation to update emergency service network reliability rules may become a Colorado Public Utilities Commission final decision mid-January if no exceptions are filed and the commission doesn’t stay it, Administrative Law Judge Conor Farley said last week. The ALJ released the recommended decision Thursday. Colorado 911 stakeholders agreed to draft rules in September (see 2209200027 and 2209070041).

A state appeals court upheld a 2021 California Public Utilities Commission decision to adopt imputation of net positive retail broadband internet access service revenue of 10 small LECs and their ISP affiliates when calculating California High Cost Fund A (CHCF-A) support. The CPUC adopted the order April 15, 2021, and denied the LECs’ rehearing request Aug. 19 that year. The telcos sought court review of the two decisions in September 2021. In a Dec. 20 unpublished opinion, the 5th District California Court of Appeals rejected the 10 RLECs’ argument that broadband imputation isn't authorized by state law, exceeds the CPUC's authority, is preempted by federal law and is an unconstitutional taking. On the federal preemption issue, the CPUC is right that broadband imputation doesn't directly "impose economic or public utility type regulation on the ISP affiliates,” Justice Donald Franson wrote (case F083339). “It does not directly impose any requirement on their rates and practices, prohibit discrimination, impose tariffing requirements, impose accounting requirements, restrict entry or exist from the ISP business, impose interconnection obligation, or require unbundling or network access.” The CPUC "correctly found that broadband imputation does not impose price controls on ISP affiliates and does not impose any additional regulations affecting their operations." The court disagrees with telcos' argument that broadband imputation's indirect effects result in economic or utility-style regulation of ISPs, Franson added. On the constitutional claim, Franson wrote, “A subsidy is not private property and, therefore, the reduction of the subsidy does not constitute the taking of private property of the telephone companies or the ISP affiliates.” Justices Bert Levy and Kathleen Meehan concurred.