The California Public Utilities Commission’s top goal for transitioning its foster youth pilot into a permanent program "should be ensuring that few youth lose service during the program transition,” said iFoster, the nonprofit that led the pilot. In comments Tuesday in docket R.20-02-008, iFoster said it knows “many foster youth lose their service during transitions of service providers and program administrators.” For example, during the migration from Boost to T-Mobile, “only about 25% of the foster youth successfully transitioned,” it said. Major changes proposed by staff could make the transition complex, said iFoster. The plan “contains many fundamental changes,” including a transition of users to California LifeLine at age 18 instead of 26, more service providers and possible changes to eligibility requirements, said the nonprofit. Every transition from the pilot into LifeLine has failed so far, even when LifeLine approves foster youth as eligible, iFoster said. “As an example, a foster youth successfully transitioned to the LifeLine program, and received a new device. Two days later, the youth was notified of termination as the youth was deemed to already have [affordable connectivity program support] in the form of at-home Internet. This was not the case.” The Utility Reform Network supports making the pilot permanent to "reduce foster youth’s barriers to accessing LifeLine services, particularly for minors,” TURN commented. The CPUC sought comments earlier this month on the proposal to make the foster youth pilot permanent (see 2309050080). T-Mobile recently said it found data discrepancies with the pilot (see 2309130016).

The Treasury Department awarded Oregon $156.7 million through the Capital Projects Fund Wednesday. About $149 million of the award will be used for broadband infrastructure projects to connect more than 17,000 homes and businesses through the state's broadband deployment grant program, said a news release. The remaining $7.7 million will be used for administrative purposes. “This unprecedented funding will strengthen Oregon’s broadband infrastructure and expand access to quality internet service,” said Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D).

Ohio must find a “long-term solution” to fund 988, said state Rep. Gail Pavliga (R) at an Ohio House Finance Committee hearing livestreamed Tuesday. Pavliga’s bipartisan HB-231 proposes a 10 cent fee on VoIP, wireline and wireless monthly bills and each retail sale of a prepaid wireless service in the state. The state has relied on federal funding for the mental health hotline, but that won’t last forever, said Pavliga. In its first year, Ohio's 988 program received 8,671 calls and 3,368 texts and chats per month, she noted. The committee didn’t vote.

NTIA should guide Ohio to revise its draft proposal for the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program to make it conform with NTIA policy on defining unserved areas, wireless groups said Monday. The Wireless ISP Association (WISPA), NATE, the Open RAN Policy Coalition and the Competitive Carriers Association sent NTIA a letter about the issue Monday. WISPA and the other groups said volume one of the state’s draft initial proposal has problems due to an Ohio budget bill (HB-33) passed earlier this year. Wireless groups had raised concerns with the state budget including a section removing wireless broadband from definitions of tier one and tier two broadband services for the purposes of getting grants (see 2307050064). The law “includes locations served by licensed fixed wireless broadband in the definition of ‘unserved,’ regardless of the quality of service delivered,” WISPA and the other groups said Monday: This is "a material change in policy -- one that could potentially add millions of additional unserved locations to the BEAD program if applied nationally at a time when many states are already deciding how to best stretch their BEAD allocations.” Treating areas with licensed spectrum as unserved would be inconsistent with the BEAD notice of funding opportunity, they said.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission set an evidentiary hearing for Nov. 15 at 1:30 p.m. PST on Lumen’s price plan, Administrative Law Judge Sarah Spruce ruled Monday in docket UM 1908. Lumen and PUC staff should file their stipulation and testimony Oct. 10, and intervenors should file objections and testimony Oct. 24, said the ALJ: Lumen and staff’s reply will be due Nov. 7. Opening briefs for both sides will be due Dec. 1 and closing briefs are due Dec. 22, said Spruce: The commission will target a Feb. 9 order. The Oregon PUC extended the expiration date on Lumen's current price plan to Feb. 29, in a Tuesday order. It would have expired Thursday.

Wisconsin is seeking comment on its digital equity plan draft for NTIA, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission said Thursday. Comments are due Oct. 19 in docket 5-BP-2023, the PSC said. Meanwhile, Louisiana’s broadband office said Friday that NTIA approved volume one of its initial proposal for the broadband, equity, access and deployment program.

The California Public Utilities Commission plans hearings on AT&T’s application to relinquish eligible telecom carrier designation, Commissioner John Reynolds said in a scoping memo Wednesday in docket A.23-03-002. The CPUC plans an evidentiary hearing in April; Reynolds directed an administrative law judge to set a specific date. The commission plans public participation hearings in Q4 2023 or Q1 2024, showed a schedule in the memo. Intervenor testimony is due Oct. 25 and AT&T rebuttal testimony is due Nov. 30, it said. The CPUC won’t consolidate the proceeding with AT&T’s separate request to shed carrier of last resort obligations (docket A.23-03-003), the memo said. "The legal standards, potential evidence, and analysis used in each proceeding will be different,” plus the parties in each matter aren’t the same, it said. However, the memo noted there will be coordination between the dockets and "their schedules are very related."

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission granted multiple petitions to discontinue and abandon telecom services in the state at a livestreamed meeting Thursday. Commissioners voted 5-0 for petitions by Mitel Cloud Services, RCLEC and Mosaic Networx. Also, the PUC unanimously supported applications filed by Plenary Broadband Infrastructure and PBI PA AssetCo to provide telecom service as a competitive access provider. And the PUC voted 5-0 to approve an Entouch Wireless petition to partly relinquish its eligible telecom carrier designation in the area previously served by underlying carrier Verizon Wireless, and to remove AT&T as the company’s underlying carrier. Thursday was Commissioner Stephen DeFrank’s first meeting as PUC chairman, but he participated virtually because he said he had COVID-19. It was also Kimberly Barrow’s first meeting as commissioner. Commissioners elected her vice chair before the meeting. The Pennsylvania Senate confirmed Barrow last month (see 2308300037).

Lumen restored 911 services Tuesday in northeast Wyoming caused by a fiber cut by a third party, the carrier’s spokesperson said: “Our techs worked nonstop to fix the issue as quickly as possible.” Thousands were left without service Tuesday morning, said a news report. Fiber cuts led to a Lumen outage in Nebraska earlier this month, prompting an investigation by the Nebraska Public Service Commission (see 2309120046 and 2309010021). The Wyoming PSC didn’t comment.

The Texas Public Utility Commission should grant eligible telecom carrier (ETC) status to Dish Wireless, staff recommended Wednesday in docket 54475. In an amended application Monday, Dish said it received ETC designation in Colorado, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Vermont. California authorized it to provide state LifeLine service, it said. Also, Dish has a pending application at the FCC for states that rely on the federal agency to decide ETC designations. States that don’t certify wireless carriers include Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, New Hampshire and North Carolina. Dish previously amended its application Aug. 30 (see 2308310025)