Maine’s comprehensive data privacy bill came up short in the state Senate on Wednesday. The bill appeared to fail when senators voted 15-18 on a Judiciary Committee majority recommendation that LD-1977 by Rep. Margaret O’Neil (D) “ought to pass.” The House narrowly passed the bill a day earlier in a 75-70 vote. The bill isn't necessarily dead. When the chambers disagree, Maine's legislative process allows each body to insist on their vote. This forces the other side to vote again. A conference committee could also be requested. Both chambers agreed to kill an alternative bill (LD-1973) by Sen. Lisa Keim (R). The House supported a majority recommendation that the bill “ought not to pass” by a 81-63 vote Wednesday. The Senate voted 18-14 for that recommendation on Tuesday. Privacy watchers said LD-1977 is notable for proposing strict data minimization standards (see 2403270045).

Colorado broadband and social media bills passed their originating chambers Tuesday. The House voted 54-7 on Wednesday to pass HB-1336, which transfers authority for awarding grant money from the state’s high-cost support mechanism to the state broadband office from a broadband deployment board in the governor's IT office (see 2404120013). It will go to the Senate. Meanwhile, the Senate voted 30-1 to pass a kids’ social media bill (SB-158) that would require age verification (see 2404160019). Appropriators cleared the measure Tuesday (see 2404160019). It will go to the House.

The Virginia House agreed with governor-recommended changes on a pole-attachments bill (HB-800), voting in favor of the amended measure by a 100-0 margin Wednesday. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) last week said the legislation should allow the Virginia State Corporation Commission to extend the bill’s deadline to resolve pole disputes by up to 60 days (see 2404090014). The Senate has yet to vote on applying that change to its version (SB-713).

Georgia Public Service Commission elections may go ahead this November, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a Wednesday order. The appeals court stayed a permanent injunction by a lower court that had stopped the 2022 Georgia PSC election. Previously, on Nov. 24, the 11th Circuit reversed the Northern District of Georgia's injunction that stopped Georgia’s secretary of state from administering PSC elections using the statewide, at-large method and from certifying any commission elected using that method. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to take up an appeal of the 11th Circuit decision (see 2404150025). The district court had blocked the statewide, at-large method because it said it constituted unlawful vote dilution under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Florida will join other states that designate mobile phone providers as eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) for the federal Lifeline program. Also, the state will extend a pole attachments promotion that lets ISPs pay $1 a year per wireline attachment per pole to bring broadband to unserved or underserved areas in municipal electric utility service territories. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the wireless ETC (SB-478) and pole-attachments (HB-1147) bills on Monday. The bills became law Tuesday. Under SB-478, Florida will transfer wireless ETC designation powers from the FCC to the Florida Public Service Commission (see 2403050070). Meanwhile, HB-1148 will extend the pole-attachment promo until Dec. 31, 2028. It would have expired July 1 this year. Other state broadband bills also advanced this week. The Louisiana House voted 101-0 to pass a bill (HB-700) updating rules for the state’s Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities program. The bill addresses data reporting, award distributions, penalties and unobligated funds. It will go to the Senate. In Colorado, the Senate voted 31-1 to pass a bill (HB-1234) to indefinitely prolong the state’s high-cost support mechanism, which provides subsidies to a dozen rural telecom providers and is scheduled to sunset Sept. 1. The Appropriations Committee advanced the bill unanimously on Friday (see 2404120013). The House previously passed the bill but would have to agree with Senate changes before HB-1234 can go to Gov. Jared Polis (D). On Tuesday, the Vermont House passed a bill (S-199) updating merger rules for communications union districts (CUDs), groups of two or more municipalities that build infrastructure in rural parts of the state. The Senate passed the bill Feb. 28, but it still needs gubernatorial OK.

Frontier Communications must spend $20 million over four years to upgrade internet speeds and infrastructure in North Carolina under a settlement with Attorney General Josh Stein (D), the state DOJ said Tuesday. The carrier also will pay $300,000 in restitution for North Carolina customers affected by slower speeds. North Carolina and other states joined the FTC suing Frontier in 2021 over slow speeds. The federal court in that case dismissed the state’s claims against Frontier while allowing the FTC’s case to proceed (see 2110040066). However, North Carolina continued to negotiate with Frontier to reach a settlement, the AG office said. “We’ve been hearing concerns from Frontier customers for years now, and I’m hopeful that these investments will lead to better service,” said Stein. Frontier didn’t comment.

Price-cap carriers appear to fail state service quality standards, the Nebraska Public Service Commission found. The commission voted 5-0 at its Tuesday meeting to require the carriers -- Windstream, Frontier Communications and Lumen’s CenturyLink to submit reports and corrective action plans. Also, commissioners voted 5-0 to seek comments by May 3, and schedule a May 15 hearing, on a second 2024 NUSF reverse auction that could distribute $18.4 million (docket NUSF-131). A multiyear investigation (see 2311280061 and 2210260052) showed customers "are experiencing significant difficulty in obtaining adequate telephone service” from the three carriers, despite receiving large amounts of Nebraska USF (NUSF) support, said the service-quality order in docket C-5303. The PSC is especially troubled that some carriers “do not appear to have taken steps since the investigation was opened to proactively improve their service,” it added. Fiber cuts comprise only "a small percentage" of recent outages, said the PSC: The rest "appear to result from the carriers’ maintenance and repair practices on their own facilities." It’s likely that the carriers “failed to meet the standard of six trouble reports per one hundred access lines per month, per exchange,” the PSC said. The commission ordered each carrier to submit information by May 31 on how many trouble reports it received in each exchange monthly from November to April. Carriers must identify any exchange averaging eight or more trouble reports per 100 lines in any of those months. By June 28, each carrier "must develop a plan to improve service in" each identified exchange “sufficient to ensure the exchange does not exceed six trouble reports per one hundred lines each month.” In addition, the PSC said it found many customers complained about inadequate customer assistance and missed technician appointments. So, each carrier must develop a plan and report to the PSC on how they improved in those areas by June 28, the commission said. "The plan must ensure customers are able to call and reach a customer service representative familiar with Nebraska’s network and customers." Committed to reliability, Windstream is "reviewing the order and will work with the Commission on any findings," a spokesperson said. CenturyLink disagrees with the order’s conclusions and believes “these reports will show that we’re providing good service to our Nebraska customers,” a Lumen spokesperson said. Frontier didn’t comment.

Votes are again delayed on foster youth and AT&T items at the California Public Utilities Commission. Both were scheduled for Thursday’s meeting, but CPUC staff postponed them until the May 9 meeting, said a hold list Tuesday. The commission originally planned to vote on both items at its Feb. 15 meeting and has now held them multiple times (see 2403200013). The first item would make the CPUC’s pilot foster youth program permanent (docket R.20-02-008). The second would deny AT&T’s corrective action plan explaining how it will correct failures and improve service after failing to meet the state’s out-of-service repair interval standard in 2021 (resolution T-17789).

A Kansas 911 administration shakeup won approval from Gov. Laura Kelly (D) on Monday. She signed HB-2690 to replace the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council with a state 911 board, among other changes (see 2403060075). The governor signed another 911 bill Friday to end a five-year audit (see 2404150027). In Colorado, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 5-4 on Tuesday to advance SB-139 to the full Senate. The bill would create a 911 services enterprise within the Department of Regulatory Agencies that could impose a user fee of up to 50 cents monthly per 911 access connection. Revenue from the new fee, which would be separate and in addition to an existing 911 surcharge imposed by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, would fund 911 costs and expenses including statewide training, cybersecurity support, geographic information system programs, grants for public safety answering points and governing bodies and matching funds for 911 or emergency notification service grants.

A Tennessee bill restricting children on social media will go to Gov. Bill Lee (R). The state House concurred with Senate amendments to HB-1891 in a 90-2 vote Monday. Lee supports the bill, which would require parental consent for kids younger than 18 on social networks (see 2404090018). In Colorado, a social media bill will go on the Senate unanimous consent calendar, the chamber’s Appropriations Committee decided unanimously on Tuesday. The bill (SB-158) would require social media platforms to publish policies and update them within 14 days of any changes to the policies. Also, it would require companies to use reasonable age verification to give users the option of applying certain settings and parental tools for known juveniles under 18. In Wisconsin, bills on minors using social media (AB-373 and SB-385) failed Monday. So did two bills on social media censorship (AB-894 and AB-895). And Wisconsin legislators failed to pass a comprehensive privacy bill (AB-466 and SB-642). Privacy bills failed in previous sessions, too (see 2312190060).