New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Friday vetoed S-6056, which would have added access to high-speed broadband Internet service as a consideration in competitive economic development grant projects, according to New York's Senate. Meanwhile, Hochul the same day approved A-1368, which lets utilities, cable companies and telecos provide notice of bills to third parties at the customer's request, the state's Assembly said. In addition, the governor signed into law S-5410, which requires the state's websites to be mobile friendly, the Senate said.

The Colorado Transportation Commission aims to streamline broadband deployment on state land along roadways with a new fee schedule for accessing the right of way, the department said Dec. 20. Colorado will have lower rates than surrounding southwest states, it said. The schedule charges an annual property use surcharge and a one-time permitting fee, “set as low as possible to only cover some administrative costs,” the department said. The method is akin to what the U.S. Forest Service uses for accessing federal lands, it said. Broadband providers annually will pay 10 cents per foot of fiber optic line in urban counties with populations exceeding 200,000 and 3 cents per foot in rural counties. Also, they will pay a one-time charge of 5 cents per foot to cover permitting costs. “The Transportation Commission has heard the perspectives of local communities throughout the state as well as industry concerns, and the proposal that we approved today offers greater opportunities for broadband development, competes favorably with our neighboring states on costs, and meets the state’s existing legal obligations to care for the public land under our responsibility,” said Transportation Commission Chair Karen Stuart.

Verizon's MCI and AT&T "are working together to ensure a transparent, efficient, and seamless transition for MCI’s customers” in California, the carriers said in a joint brief Thursday before the California Public Utilities Commission. “No additional measures need to be adopted." MCI applied Oct. 2 to discontinue LEC “service and related bundled offerings of local and interexchange voice services to residential and small business customers” across the state (see 2311090046). It would transfer customers to AT&T or a different provider that the customer chooses. MCI meets California requirements for discontinuing local exchange service, the carriers said. The Utility Reform Network seeks to work "with other parties to ensure that all MCI customers receive meaningful advance notice of the migration and information about their telephone service options,” TURN said in another brief (docket A.23-10-002). The CPUC plans a virtual status conference Jan. 8 on the MCI application, Administrative Law Judge Seaneen Wilson said Friday. In a separate proceeding Thursday, the CPUC scheduled a Feb. 9 virtual prehearing conference on possible updates to the state’s deaf and disabled telecommunications program (docket R.23-11-001).

Connecticut is seeking comment on a draft digital equity plan released Friday. Comments on the state's proposal are due Jan. 20, the office of Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said. The Connecticut Department of Administrative Services’ Commission for Educational Technology aims to finalize the plan by the end of March, the governor’s office said. The plan’s goals include developing and promoting digital skills and technical support programs, providing affordable internet options and expanding state and local digital government services.

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).

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.”

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?”

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).

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.