A New Jersey commission asked residents to take a broadband survey Tuesday. The Broadband Access Study Commission (BASC) survey, meant to assess speed, usage and service gaps, will help the state pursue federal funding, said the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU). The survey will close Jan. 31. New Jersey BPU President Joseph Fiordaliso chairs the 2021-established BASC, which also includes representatives from the state legislature, local governments, industry and community groups. The BASC plans to issue a final report next year, the BPU said.
Don’t dismiss a cable industry petition to resolve a pole attachment rate dispute with Consolidated Communications, said Charter Communications, Comcast and Breezeline in a Monday filing at the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission. The cable companies asked the PUC in August to look into allegedly “unjust, unreasonable, and unlawful” annual rental rates for attachments on Consolidated poles and joint-use charges by Consolidated for attaching to poles not owned by the company. Consolidated urged the PUC to dismiss because it said the rates, terms and conditions are part of voluntarily entered contracts (see 2210170082). When the PSC developed its 2009 pole attachment rules, “it considered but rejected the jurisdictional argument that Consolidated now advances” in docket DT 22-047, the cablers said. The PSC should again “reject the position that its jurisdiction over pole attachment disputes is limited only to those cases where the parties do not have a pole attachment agreement in place.”
Louisiana PSC Democratic incumbent Lambert Boissiere lost 59.5%-40.5% against Democrat Davante Lewis in a Saturday runoff election. Boissiere, who had held the PSC seat for 17 years, finished well ahead of Lewis in the Nov. 8 general election but below the more than 50% threshold needed to win (see 2211090066). Incumbent PSC Republican Mike Francis won reelection during the general election against fellow Republican Shalon Latour and nonaffiliated candidate Keith Bodin.
NTIA awarded about $48.5 million in funding through the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program and Digital Equity Act to eight states Monday (see 2212080062). New York received nearly $7.2 million, Arizona more than $6.1 million, Alabama and Tennessee nearly $6 million each, Maryland and Wisconsin more than $5.9 million each, Minnesota more than $5.8 million, and Montana more than $5.6 million.
Minnesota awarded nearly $100 million to ISPs for faster internet, Gov. Tim Walz (D) said Thursday. "This historic funding will dramatically improve broadband access for thousands of Minnesotans.” The state Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) will spend $99.7 million from the border-to-border broadband program on 61 broadband expansion projects, said DEED, which listed the awards on its website. ISP grantees estimate that will extend service to about 33,000 homes and businesses in 48 counties, it said. The latest awards add significantly to $130 million in previous awards, said DEED. Last week’s grants were funded with state dollars and $70 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, said DEED. Grants couldn’t be more than $5 million per project and may be used to reimburse up to 50% of a grantee's eligible deployment costs. Also, the state requires projects to provide at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds. DEED said it will soon open a request for proposals for another $67.6 million.
The California Public Utilities Commission may vote Jan. 12 on a draft resolution to award $10.3 million in rural and urban regional broadband consortia grants to 15 consortiums, the CPUC said Friday. Comments on draft resolution T-17778 are due Dec. 29 and replies are due Jan. 3, the agency said.
Maine broadband officials are “moving at lightning speed,” while “trying to be strategic,” as they attempt to close the state’s digital divide, said Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) President Andrew Butcher Friday at the partially virtual Maine Broadband Summit. The state still has much work to do to make sure the infrastructure is available to all and everyone can take “full advantage” of it, said Department of Community and Economic Development Commissioner Heather Johnson. Maine established the MCA last year (see 2106250068) to improve on ConnectMaine, the state’s previous broadband office, said Butcher and Johnson. ConnectMaine didn’t have the resources to complete the job, said Butcher. ConnectMaine didn’t fail, said Johnson, who was previously ConnectMaine’s director: The older office moved mapping forward and built a framework for community planning. “They just didn’t have the tools or the statutory mechanisms to implement them effectively.” The additional flexibility afforded to MCA has allowed the office to build a strong team, said Butcher, saying his office is picking up on the previous one’s work as ConnectMaine is merged into MCA. Broadband has been a "thoroughly bipartisan" issue in Maine, said state Sen. Rick Bennett (R), who co-chairs the Maine legislature’s broadband caucus and worked on the bill that created MCA. Thursday’s announcement that Maine will get about $5.5 million from NTIA for planning was historic for the state’s broadband efforts, said Maine Broadband Coalition Board Chair Nick Battista. “This is a very different world than it was three years ago.” In a video message, Sen. Susan Collins (R) said the planning award “will help our state extend our high-speed network.” In another recorded video, Sen. Angus King (I) said, “This is a moment when we really can change the future of Maine.”
Don’t extend implementation of one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) in California, Crown Castle said in a letter Thursday to the California Public Utilities Commission. The company asked the CPUC to reject San Diego Gas & Electric’s request to extend the deadline to Oct. 20 from Jan. 20 (see 2211230071). “Crown Castle does not dispute SDG&E’s claims that it must make significant changes to its systems and process, which could require additional time,” but the CPUC already rejected a one-year implementation period sought by other utilities, it said. Crown Castle suggested a three-month extension if the CPUC grants SDG&E’s request, “which it should not.” Any extension should be limited to the OTMR rules and not apply to other updated right-of-way rules, Crown Castle added.
A possible Pennsylvania USF review must be comprehensive, said Commissioner John Coleman at a livestreamed Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission meeting Thursday. Commissioners voted 5-0 for an order setting a Pennsylvania USF budget and surcharge for 2023 (docket M-00001337). The PUC will increase the USF surcharge to 2.53% of 2021 average monthly intrastate retail revenue, from 2.13% of 2020 average revenue, an increase of about 19%, the order said. The fund administrator says the contribution base may need to be expanded due to continuing declines in the base and annual reported revenue, which caused increases to the surcharge, noted Coleman. “Any review of the fund should not be done on a piecemeal basis” or “limited to the contribution base alone.” Commissioner Ralph Yanora agreed. Also at the meeting, commissioners voted 5-0 to approve a settlement with Lumen’s CenturyLink in an investigation into alleged outages and unreliable service (see 2209150025). The telco agreed to pay a $45,000 civil penalty and implement remedial measures including a quality assurance program and required public service announcements to educate the public on how to report damaged facilities (docket M-2022-3028754).
Still denying it misled California regulators about its CDMA transition, T-Mobile seeks rehearing of the California Public Utilities Commission's Nov. 7 decision penalizing the carrier $3.59 million. T-Mobile said last month it disagreed with the decision (see 2211040013). The decision’s fact findings and legal conclusions aren’t supported by record evidence, said T-Mobile’s application Wednesday in docket A.18-07-012. Also, the CPUC didn’t “rebut, or in many cases even meaningfully engage with, the substance of T-Mobile’s objections” in a May 2022 appeal of the presiding officer’s decision, the carrier said.