The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission should assess maximum penalties ($243,000) against Lumen’s CenturyLink for keeping customers on hold for too long and not quickly responding to the government’s information requests (see 2403180034), the state’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) said Monday. However, Lumen urged “no or minimum penalties.” CenturyLink committed nine violations of a rule requiring telecom companies’ customer service reps to answer customers' calls in 60 seconds or less, on an average monthly basis, Ferguson said, representing Washington UTC staff in a brief in docket UT-240078. The company should pay the maximum $1,000 fine for each of the nine months when it failed to meet that metric in 2022, Ferguson added. Also, the AG said it’s not disputed that Lumen violated commission rules when it failed to provide timely and complete response to staff's requests for information. Staff believes Lumen should pay the maximum $1,000 for each of 234 days it was in violation. "Staff provided the Company ample warning and opportunities to cooperate and come into compliance before assessing penalties in this case,” said the AG. “The Company instead chose to ignore these warnings and Staff’s requests for information and therefore the maximum amount of penalties is warranted.” In another brief Monday, Lumen conceded it didn't meet the average hold time metric from January through November 2022. Also, it acknowledged “inadvertent delays in its responses to Staff data requests due to strains on company resources, including the unexpected departure of one employee tasked with responding, as well as a communications gap between CenturyLink and Staff.” However, in determining penalties, the UTC should consider how the company has performed since, Lumen said. “While CenturyLink regrets that there were any violations, it has been consistently compliant ... since December 2022, and it has taken effective remedial actions to prevent delinquency in responding to Staff data requests.”

The California Public Utilities Commission won’t vote on possible VoIP rules at Thursday’s meeting. The telecom industry last week warned the CPUC not to vote for a proposed decision that would say that interconnected VoIP providers are telephone corporations subject to the same laws and rules as other wireline and wireless telcos (see 2410110040). CPUC staff held the item until the Nov. 7 meeting, said a hold list released Monday. In addition -- and for the fourth time -- staff postponed voting on a plan to allow people without social security numbers to apply for state LifeLine support (see 2409250016). The CPUC gave no reasons for the delays.

Make children and teenagers eligible for California's deaf and disabled telecommunications program, Center for Accessible Technology and The Utility Reform Network said in comments posted Monday at the California Public Utilities Commission. Similar programs in Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Texas and Washington state are open to kids as young as 4 or 5 years old, said the consumer groups in docket R.23-11-001. Also, the consumer advocates said the commission should do more targeted outreach to gather input on topics including emergency preparedness, program certification requirements and ways to spur technological innovation. In addition, the CPUC should address barriers to access, they said. “A very common driver of a lack of access is a failure to recognize that there is a wide spectrum of communications needs, and that individual communications needs can be very complex.”

The Nevada Public Utilities Commission will seek consumer feedback on an AT&T application for provider of last resort (POLR) relief in parts of two counties (docket 24-08001), the PUC said Friday. POLRs must provide basic and business phone services to anyone who requests it in the company’s territory. AT&T says that POLR designation isn’t needed anymore because other companies now provide telecom services in its area, said the PUC: However, the carrier says it's not asking to discontinue service to existing customers. The consumer sessions will take place Oct. 17 at 10 a.m. PST in Ely, Nevada, and 3 p.m. PST in Battle Mountain, Nevada. In addition, the PUC said it plans to hold a hearing Dec. 10 at 11 a.m. PST.

Verizon asked Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to condition rather than deny deregulation of the carrier’s services. PURA plans to vote Oct. 16 on a draft order that would deny Verizon’s petition to reclassify its remaining services as competitive and retire the company’s alternative form of regulation plan (see 2410030043). The draft would find that possible harm to the public interest outweighs the presence of competition in Verizon’s Greenwich, Connecticut, market. Filing an exception Thursday, Verizon said PURA's “proposed decision includes a legal error and reaches conclusions on competition inconsistent with the evidentiary record.” Describing the alleged error, Verizon said, “That certain statutes would no longer apply to a company providing competitive services is precisely what the Legislature intended when it established a framework encompassing both the conditions for and consequences of reclassification … By relying on the regulatory changes that will necessarily accompany reclassification under the statutory scheme, the Authority in effect declared that reclassification itself is inherently contrary to the public interest.” However, Verizon said that if PURA grants reclassification, it would be willing to continue to be bound by current Connecticut customer termination procedures and certain state reporting requirements related to equipment conditions and accidents. The carrier proposed this condition previously. Meanwhile, the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel supported PURA’s proposed decision while recommending minor clarifications.

Alaska and Ohio received NTIA approval for the second volume of their initial plans for the broadband equity, access and deployment program, NTIA said Friday. That means Alaska may access its $1 billion BEAD allocation, while Ohio may dip into its $793 million pot. The announcement leaves three states awaiting NTIA approval: Alabama, Florida and Texas. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said Oct. 4 that the agency aims to finish the reviews by month’s end (see 2410040035).

The U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio set oral argument for March 12 on summary judgment motions in NetChoice’s challenge of Ohio’s social media parental notification law. The argument starts at 9:30 a.m. in Columbus, with 20 minutes for each side, including up to five minutes for rebuttals, Judge Algenon Marbley ordered Wednesday in case 2:24-cv-00047. NetChoice’s motion seeks to permanently block the statute on constitutional grounds, while the defendant, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R), argues the law is "valid" and enforceable.

The Michigan Public Service Commission granted AT&T’s request to surrender its AT&T Corp. license after an internal restructuring. PSC members, at a partially virtual meeting Thursday, voted 2-0, with one commissioner absent, to grant a consent agenda including the AT&T item. AT&T Corp. no longer had customers or operations in Michigan due to a restructuring that transferred the customers to AT&T Enterprises, AT&T explained in a Sept. 10 letter (docket U-17031). “This internal restructuring was seamless to customers as AT&T Enterprises, LLC provides the same services, on the same terms and conditions, in the same service territory and using the same network as AT&T Corp. The customers’ services, prices, terms and conditions of service were not affected.”

Windstream received New Jersey’s OK for its deal with Uniti Group, in which Windstream and Uniti will become subsidiaries of a new parent corporation (docket TM24060411). New Jersey Board of Public Utilities members voted 4-0 to grant the companies’ June 14 petition as part of a consent agenda at a livestreamed meeting Wednesday.

Michigan should strengthen data breach laws, the state’s attorney general department said Wednesday. The office supported a package of five state Senate bills (SB-888 to SB-892), currently in the Senate Consumer Protection Committee, that would include a requirement that companies quickly notify the AG department about breaches. Most states already require such notification, but Michigan’s AG usually finds out about breaches through media reports, the department said. Michigan AG Dana Nessel (D) said, “Passing legislation to mandate these protections would affirm our commitment to defending consumers’ interests in the face of ever-increasing numbers of data breaches impacting their personal information.”