The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will soon issue a draft order to implement a 2023 state law that continues until Sept. 1 subsidies from Colorado's high-cost support mechanism (HCSM) to a dozen rural telecom providers. After nobody appeared during a virtual hearing Monday to comment, Administrative Law Judge Harris Adams said he would “take the matter under advisement and issue a written recommended decision.” In an Oct. 25 NPRM (docket C23-0730), the PUC proposed extending HCSM support from Dec. 1 and establishing that in 2024 the commission will allocate 100% of the money collected, “minus the Commission’s administrative costs and distributions to wireline and wireless rural telecommunication providers.”

The Utah Public Service Commission has an "exceedingly transparent" process for determining Utah USF (UUSF) distributions and surcharges, the PSC said in a Monday order. The commission responded to CTIA’s call for greater transparency, while nearly doubling the surcharge to 71 cents per access line, from 36 cents, effective Dec. 29. The commission proposed the increase last September (see 2309200047). CTIA complained in comments Friday that the Utah Department of Public Utilities (DPU) didn’t sufficiently explain the purpose for additional funding “or whether such surcharges are prudent and necessary.” The wireless industry association said, “Appropriate transparency is particularly crucial for Utah’s wireless consumers because of the significant economic burden they bear supporting the UUSF.” The Utah commission “respect[s] CTIA’s concerns around transparency but note[s] they focus exclusively on one action request response issued by the DPU,” the order said. “That filing by the DPU was a meaningful, but single, component of a fulsome and transparent regulatory process that involved both the DPU, the PSC, and multiple opportunities for any interested person to provide comments.”

The California Public Utilities Commission set deadlines on Blue Casa Telephone’s application to relinquish its eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation and discontinue local exchange and interexchange services in AT&T and Frontier Communications territory. Frontier should respond to the application by Jan. 2, said assigned Commissioner Darcie Houck’s scoping memo Friday (docket A.23-09-006). Then, opening testimony is due Jan. 29 and replies Feb. 12, it said. Any joint motion for evidentiary hearing should be filed by Feb. 16, the memo said. Responding earlier to the application, AT&T said it would need about 10 weeks to migrate customers if it's ordered to be a default carrier for customers who haven’t made other selections.

Expect state legislative focus on children’s online safety to continue in 2024, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) said Friday. State legislators introduced about 150 bills in more than 35 states dealing with children’s online safety in 2023, a CCIA report said. Prohibiting addictive algorithms and requiring age-appropriate design, age verification or parental consent were some of the items covered, the report said. The internet industry group raised concerns that states’ proposed laws conflict with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires users to verify their own age and doesn’t hold websites liable if the user gives incorrect information. Bills requiring age verification and parental consent for accessing certain websites also could create privacy and security concerns because companies would have to collect government IDs, credit cards or other personal information to comply, said CCIA State Policy Director Khara Boender. “And younger users could be barred from accessing information and communities of support.”

The California Public Utilities Commission cleared $6.7 million in digital inclusion grants under the California Advanced Services Fund broadband adoption account Thursday. The CPUC approved 21 grants to the California Emerging Technology Fund, Oakland Tech Exchange, Sacred Heart Community Service, Sourcewise and California cities Lynwood and La Puente. The agency said it expects projects will provide digital literacy training for 12,454 people, expand broadband access for 14,265 and sign up 30,580 for high-speed internet. The CPUC also approved $441,374 in grants under its broadband public housing account to expand wireline and wireless infrastructure and bring free broadband service to 306 living units of publicly supported housing.

State broadband leaders and corrections officials should "work together to deliver digital equity to the incarcerated people in prisons, jails and detention centers across the country," a nonprofit incarcerated people’s communications services provider said in an open letter Monday. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s broadband, equity access and deployment "and digital equity funding provide a generational opportunity where digital equity for incarcerated people can finally be achieved," wrote Ameelio Chief Operating Officer April Feng. The IPCS provider recommended states identify correctional facilities as community anchor institutions to give facilities access to federal broadband funding and consider legislation lowering costs for communications services. The group also urged states to invest in digital literacy in correctional facilities, saying the lack of such infrastructure is "hindering digital adoption inside the walls."

California’s largest tribe rejected multiple AT&T recommendations for the state’s participation in the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. The California Public Utilities Commission received reply comments Thursday on volumes one and two of draft BEAD initial proposals (docket R.23-02-016). The Yurok Tribe disagreed with AT&T that project area units should be as geographically small as possible. "AT&T says that requiring minimum geographic units to be equivalent to a contiguous tribal land area could ‘eliminate synergies and increase costs,’ but that’s precisely the logic that has led to a patchwork of service on tribal lands, and the chronic underinvestment of incumbent providers in remote, rural tribal locations,” the tribe said. In addition, Yurok disagreed with AT&T that applicants should have prior experience with technology they plan to deploy. "This suggestion would, quite obviously, completely disqualify a number of new providers seeking to bring quality service to areas long ignored by incumbent providers from eligibility." And the tribe disagreed with the carrier to score more points to larger projects. "Doing so would reward incumbent providers at the cost of new providers, as incumbent providers are better positioned to develop larger projects that serve more locations.” AT&T made the suggestions in its opening comments (see 2311280053). The San Diego Association of Governments urged the CPUC to better prioritize equity. "The current scoring rubric allocates only 10 points out of 100 for projects targeting low-income and disadvantaged communities,” the San Diego group said. While CPUC must comply with NTIA rules, “we contend that this limited point allocation may not serve as a sufficient incentive for ISPs to invest in areas of utmost need.” USTelecom replied, "California should rely on ACP participation and a comparability test to meet BEAD’s affordability requirements and affordability should not be scored on a sliding scale.” If the state adopts low-cost and middle-income affordability plans, “providers should be able to adjust prices to capture inflation, cost of living increases and other costs outside of the providers control such as taxes,” said USTelecom: And don’t prioritize open access. The CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office urged the CPUC to reject recommendations to modify "affordability requirements in ways that would prioritize private interests over the public interest.”

Wisconsin will prefer funding fiber broadband. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed the bill (SB-325) Wednesday. The wireless industry raised concerns about the bill (see 2310180032).

Frontier Communications must answer a complaint from the state’s E-911 Council, the West Virginia Public Service Commission said Wednesday. The council complained that 10 emergency call centers couldn’t receive 911 calls for nearly 10 hours during a three-day period last month, the PSC said. E-911 Council Executive Director Dean Meadows said Frontier has inadequate backup for times when vandalism or bad weather disables phone lines. The council has seen problems for the last two to three years, he said. “We’re really at our wit’s end about what ought to be done.” Frontier, which didn’t comment Thursday, must respond within 10 days, the PSC ordered Tuesday in docket 23-0921-T-C. On Monday, the PSC reported Altice improvements after the agency fined the company $2.2 million in February 2022 for service quality failures (see 2202090063). Customer complaints against Altice’s Optimum, formerly known as Suddenlink, dropped by more than half to 311 so far this year from 687 in 2022, the West Virginia PSC said. Chairman Charlotte Lane is pleased but will keep monitoring, she said. “Optimum’s attitude seems dramatically different from before.”

Pennsylvania's USF contribution rate will increase to 2.69% of monthly intrastate revenue from 2.53%, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission unanimously decided Thursday. The Pennsylvania USF administrator suggests reexamining the state USF mechanism due to the contribution base’s “continuous decline” and a reduction in annual reporter revenue, said the order in docket M-00001337. The PUC approved an advance NPRM in August to amend state USF rules, with a first round of comments due Feb. 9 (see 2308240072). Not all carriers report their intrastate VoIP revenue as they should, said the PUC, directing all carriers to do so for state USF purposes.