States can achieve universal broadband with a mix of fiber, fixed wireless and satellite technologies, Vernonburg Group CEO Paul Garnett said during a Wireless ISP Association webinar Thursday. Garnett demonstrated his consulting group’s broadband planning tool, which estimates an “optimal” extremely high cost per location threshold for each jurisdiction. “If you make the right decisions, you will be able to achieve your internet-for-all goals,” he said. Deploying broadband becomes increasingly expensive as a state gets closer to reaching all unserved and underserved areas, said Garnett: There are points where it makes sense to consider fiber alternatives, he said. Estimating about $53.6 billion in grant funds available across the entire U.S., including multiple federal and state sources, the tool suggests that 58% of locations should receive fiber, 38% should be served with fixed wireless and 4% should get satellite service, so all unserved and underserved locations are covered. Some states will rely more on wireless than others, Garnett said. With about $270 million in available grant funds, Maryland could serve 46% of locations with fiber, 52% with fixed wireless and 2% with satellite, according to the tool's calculations. For Utah, with about $388.6 million in grants, it estimates a mix of 67% fiber, 27% fixed wireless and 6% satellite. WISPA commissioned Vernonburg to create the tool, a WISPA spokesperson said. “[Vernonburg] did all the modeling work without deep input from us on what the outcome would be.”

With less than a week before NTIA's Dec. 27 deadline, fewer than half of states and territories have submitted their full initial plan for the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, according to the agency's Wednesday update to its BEAD progress dashboard. NTIA said 20 entities filed both volumes of their initial plan, 10 more than the agency reported last Friday. So far, the agency has received just the first volume from 15 states and territories. It hasn’t received either volume from 21 others, though they all released drafts of both volumes. The NTIA update didn’t include New Jersey, where the Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday cleared staff to submit both volumes (see 2312200064). Louisiana last week became the first state to get full NTIA approval for its initial proposal (see 2312150047).

Wisconsin state legislators should greenlight a new grant program supporting migration from the state’s “woefully outdated” emergency call system, Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association Executive Director Bill Esbeck said Wednesday during an Assembly State Affairs Committee hearing. The committee mulled AB-356, which directs the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs to award grants that reimburse next-generation 911 (NG-911) costs of ILECs acting as originating service providers. Covered costs would include IP-based transport, database management and the purchase, installation and maintenance of equipment. The bill would limit the department from awarding more than one grant per ILEC per fiscal year. The state’s current 911 fund, which gets revenue from a 75-cent monthly charge on customer bills, will provide enough money but doesn’t allow cost recovery after the NG-911 transition, said Esbeck. He said that five of 72 Wisconsin counties have connected to the state’s emergency services IP network, but ILECs in those places have yet to cut over to it. Wisconsin’s 2023-2025 biennial budget restricted diverting 911 fee revenue for unrelated purposes, Esbeck noted. In 2009, the state renamed its 911 money as a “police and fire protection fund” and diverted cash to a general fund, he said. The new grant program would support NG-911 only, said AB-356 sponsor Rep. Tony Kurtz (R). While future legislators or governors could change state law to resume 911 fee diversion, “I think everybody in the state understands how important this is,” he said. “We’d be very foolish to change that.”

AT&T should receive carrier of last resort (COLR) relief in parts of California that have at least one voice alternative, economist Mark Israel said in testimony AT&T submitted Tuesday at the California Public Utilities Commission (docket A.23-03-003). Letting the carrier discontinue plain old telephone service (POTS) “would be economically efficient, benefit consumers, and serve the public interest,” he said. “A decades-old COLR obligation mandating indefinite support of a declining legacy technology is economically inefficient, particularly in the face of widely available alternatives based on superior technologies, including mobile and” VoIP. The COLR obligation “ties up scarce resources that could better serve consumers elsewhere,” added Israel. “COLR distorts competition because it is applied to a single firm in the market, imposing costs that weaken that firm competitively, thereby reducing the competitive pressure that firm can apply to other firms, thus harming the entire market.” In separate testimony, AT&T Vice President-Global Public Policy Michael Alarcon said maintaining the old landline network gets tougher every day. “With fewer and fewer POTS customers, economies of scale have been evaporating,” he wrote. “It is increasingly challenging for the revenues derived from the remaining POTS customers to support the operating costs. A significant amount of outside plant, transport, and switching facilities are necessary to serve even a handful of customers -- and these facilities require ongoing repair and maintenance.” COLR relief would free resources for upgrading networks to fiber and 5G wireless, he said. The CPUC plans eight hearings on AT&T's applications for COLR and eligible telecom carrier (ETC) relief (see 2312040071).

The California Public Utilities Commission sought comment Tuesday on how to expand the state’s LifeLine program to low-income people lacking social security numbers (SSN). Comments are due Jan. 26, replies Feb. 23. Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma, assigned to docket R.20-02-008, is “committed to ensuring that low-income Californians have access to essential communication services without barriers to program participation,” she wrote. The commissioner asked how to ensure Californians without social security numbers can participate and what types of government-issued identity documents it should accept from those people. “The FCC has not yet determined whether to waive the SSN requirement for federal Lifeline participants in California,” began another question. “Should the California LifeLine Fund make up for all or a portion of the lack of federal Lifeline support for Californians without an SSN?”

A Frontier Communications rate case in Arizona can move forward, Arizona Corporation Commission staff said. Frontier’s application and schedules were filed Aug. 30, covered Arizona's White Mountains region and met the commission’s sufficiency requirements, Utilities Division Telecom and Energy Chief Barbara Keene wrote to the company Monday. Separately, staff asked an administrative law judge to set a procedural schedule that would extend into next fall. Under that schedule, staff and intervenor direct testimony on competitive classification and nonessential service determinations would be due May 3; their testimony on service cost, rate design and state USF issues would be due May 31. Frontier’s rebuttal would be due July 26, staff and intevenors’ rebuttal Aug. 23 and Frontier’s rejoinder Sept. 6. Staff suggested a prehearing conference Sept. 11 and a hearing Sept. 23. “Staff believes that the proposed schedule is reasonable in light of the potential number of issues presented in this case,” it said. ALJ Julia Matter in a Tuesday order scheduled a teleconference for Jan. 2 at 10 a.m MST to discuss procedure and next steps (docket T-03214A-23-0250). Frontier is the only company receiving Arizona USF high-cost support. The commission earlier decided to delay possible sweeping USF changes due to the upcoming Frontier rate case (see 2303160069). Commissioners declined to raise USF contribution rates earlier this month (see 2312050032).

Washington state will weigh AI legislation next year, Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) said Tuesday. Ferguson worked with state Sen. Joe Nguyen (D) and state Rep. Travis Couture (R) on prefiled bills (SB-5838 and HB-1934) to create an AI task force, the AG office said. The task force will convene industry, civil liberty groups, AI experts and others to consider risks and benefits and make recommendations to the legislature, it said. “As we celebrate [AI's] benefits, we must also ensure we protect against the potential for irresponsible use and unintentional consequences,” Ferguson said.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission delayed a hearing planned Wednesday in its Windstream 911 outage probe due to the illness of “a key staff member,” a PSC spokesperson said Tuesday. The commission rescheduled the hearing for Dec. 28 at 9 a.m. CST. The commission plans a hearing Jan. 4 on Lumen’s recent 911 outage (see 2312060060).

Don’t let anyone say a Wisconsin privacy bill is moving too fast, state Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (R) said during a livestreamed hearing Tuesday. The Wisconsin Senate Consumer Protection Committee heard testimony on Zimmerman’s AB-466 and Senate companion SB-642 but didn’t vote. The Assembly last month unanimously passed AB-466, which would allow consumers to request and delete information that certain data controllers hold (see 2311150039). Versions of the bill appeared in three straight legislative sessions, said Zimmerman. “That’s six years of my life.” Zimmerman said he wants to avoid a state privacy law “tapestry.” Instead, the Republican hopes to push Congress to make a good federal law, he said. Wisconsin’s bill is similar to Virginia’s “pretty darn good” privacy law, he added. The main difference is that, in Wisconsin, consumer complaints wouldn’t go to the state AG, Zimmerman said. Instead, they would be handled by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, an existing state agency that seems more suited to the task, he said. The AG would remain the Wisconsin bill’s sole enforcer, however. BSA|The Software Alliance supported the bill during Tuesday's hearing. In the absence of Congress approving a national privacy bill, “and I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel anytime soon,” Wisconsin should be the 14th state with a privacy law, Head of State Advocacy Matthew Lenz said. The bill "imposes strong obligations on all companies that handle consumer data," while being "interoperable" with other states' laws, he said.

New Jersey lawmakers advanced a social media bill for minors requiring age verification and parental consent. The Assembly Health Committee voted 8-1 Monday for A-5750, sending it to the floor. Another committee sent comprehensive data privacy legislation to the floor the same day (see 2312180067). The Computer and Communications Industry Association opposed A-5750. It would hurt marginalized and vulnerable communities by requiring companies to collect a lot more data on users, said CCIA. A proposed private right of action would lead to many frivolous lawsuits, the industry group added.