AT&T will receive a refund of $2.26 million for Utah Universal Service Fund (UUSF) overpayments, the Utah Public Service Commission said in an order Wednesday (docket 24-087-02). The PSC approved a settlement between AT&T and the Utah Division of Public Utilities. Under the agreement, AT&T “will implement certain policies and procedures governing its future conduct and the reporting of its monthly number of access lines subject to the UUSF charge,” the PSC said. The carrier will receive its refund in monthly installments starting in February, subject to the company meeting specific obligations, the commission said. For two years, AT&T erroneously assessed a higher UUSF surcharge than the PSC required (see 2407110030 and 2405280028).

Maine’s phone number conservation efforts are paying off, the Public Utilities Commission said Wednesday. A North American numbering plan administrator's (NANPA) semi-annual review of area code exhaustion dates showed that the state's single area code (207) added 2.5 years to its expected lifespan, the Maine PUC said. The area code is expected to reach exhaustion in 2036. “The Commission is very active in a number of conservation efforts, working with companies to ensure they get the telephone numbers they need, while asking other companies to return numbers they don’t need,” said Chair Philip Bartlett. The Maine PUC is working with telcos, the FCC, NANPA and the North American Numbering Council “on strategies to extend the entire numbering system, not just Maine,” added Bartlett. It wasn’t the first extension for the Maine area code’s exhaustion date. Back in January 2001, the code was expected to expire in 2024.

Connecticut utility regulators voted 3-0 to deny Verizon deregulation. At a meeting Wednesday, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority approved an order rejecting Verizon’s petition reclassifying its remaining Connecticut services as competitive and retiring the company’s alternative form of regulation plan (see 2410110020 and 2410030043). PURA found that possible harm to the public interest outweighed the presence of competition in Verizon’s Greenwich market. The carrier’s offer of an enforceable commitment to abide by current Connecticut customer termination procedures and certain state reporting requirements failed to alleviate all the authority's concerns, said the final decision. “Such a proposal requires additional consideration during the course of a proceeding, where the Authority can solicit feedback from other stakeholders." In any case, “such a proposal does not address the Authority’s conclusions regarding the number, size, and geographic distribution of certified telecommunications providers offering service in the Service Area nor the inconclusive nature of what barriers to entry do or do not exist in the Service Area,” PURA said. Verizon didn’t comment. Of the authority's four commissioners, Vice Chairman Jack Betkoski didn’t vote because he wasn’t on the three-person panel assigned to docket 24-06-15, a PURA spokesperson said.

The California Public Utilities Commission didn’t do enough research before proposing that it regulate VoIP services, the New York Law School’s Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute (ACLP) said Tuesday. The telecom industry last week condemned the proposed decision that would say interconnected VoIP providers are telephone corporations subject to the same laws and rules as other wireline and wireless telcos (see 2410110040). In reply comments, companies, including Comcast and Frontier Communications, continued calling for workshops and further review. The CPUC “failed to offer a strong factual basis to justify its expansive proposal for extending common carrier regulation to VOIP services because it did not endeavor to collect data, information, and input via evidentiary hearings and other mechanisms typically deployed by the Commission in similar circumstances,” ACLP said. “Had the Commission gathered more data and information about the downsides of regulating advanced communications services like VOIP as common carriers, it would have been able to identify the negative consumer outcomes that tend to stem from fragmented state-by-state public utility regulation of these offerings, including higher costs and fewer choices for consumers.” The CPUC was scheduled to vote on the item Thursday, but staff postponed it until Nov. 7 (see 2410150033).

Windstream promised it would spend $1 million on network reliability and diversity to resolve a Nebraska Public Service Commission investigation into three recent 911 outages that occurred during a five-month period (see 2401230048). Nebraska commissioners voted 5-0 at their Wednesday meeting for an order approving a stipulated agreement between the PSC and Windstream dismissing the matter (docket 911-078). Under a 911 remediation plan, Windstream would upgrade backup power and increase redundancy with an additional third network path for traffic into and out of Nebraska. Moreover, the carrier agreed that a third party should audit and assess network reliability and engineering. The agreement “provides for civil penalties if Windstream does not complete the agreed upon enhancements and improvements by the end of 2025,” Nebraska PSC Chair Dan Watermeier noted. “While we appreciate Windstream’s willingness to work with us, we will continue to monitor the company’s progress to confirm that it is complying with the agreement.” Windstream is “pleased that we were able to amicably resolve this matter,” said Trent Fellers, Windstream vice president-state government affairs for Nebraska. “While we have already taken significant steps to improve our network, Windstream believes the measures outlined in the remediation plan are prudent and will further strengthen our network in the state.” Last week, the Nebraska PSC tentatively scheduled Nov. 4-5 hearings in a separate investigation into a widespread Lumen 911 outage from 2023.

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 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.

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.

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).