Massachusetts awarded $20 million in digital equity grants Tuesday. The money will fund digital navigators, device refurbishment and distribution, neighborhood broadband connectivity, digital education for workforce development, telehealth resource navigation and free Wi-Fi in affordable housing and public housing developments, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) said. Grants were given to Metropolitan Area Planning Council ($5.6 million), Metro North Workforce Investment Board ($4.1 million), University of Massachusetts Lowell ($4 million), Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers ($3.75 million) and AgeSpan ($3 million), it added. Also Tuesday, the Vermont Community Broadband Board sought comments on the state’s digital equity plan by Dec. 31. The board especially wants input from “people from communities that have traditionally been marginalized,” Digital Equity Officer Britaney Watson said Tuesday. The board scheduled a virtual listening session Dec. 14 at 6:30 p.m.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission should approve without modification Lumen’s “fair” pact with PUC staff on a successor price plan, the settling parties said Friday in docket UM 1908. It’s "a meaningful compromise between the positions of formerly adverse parties,” they said. Intervenors Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board (CUB) and Lumen customer Priscilla Weaver don't oppose most of the agreement, including rates from a proposed price plan that "uniquely restricts CenturyLink’s ability to raise prices based upon the Company’s performance across a number of service quality measures,” said Lumen and PUC staff: Intervenors oppose removing previous protections only for Jacksonville, Oregon, customers. But the Jacksonville orders “are no longer necessary and apply only to a very small group of approximately 100 customers,” the settling parties said. Under the agreement, most protections “will continue to apply to the rural Jacksonville customers and … to 40 times more customers who are similarly situated." Oregon CUB agreed it objects only to deleting the Jacksonville orders. Lumen relies on broadband "as a solution even though it may not be available until" Dec. 31, 2024, and it hasn't "provided a plan to address near-term service quality issues," the consumer group said. Weaver urged the PUC not to accept the plan, which she said would "nullify without cause" the Jacksonville orders. The proposed plan’s protections "are almost non-existent, and nowhere close to the same as in the Jacksonville Orders,” she wrote.

“Regulations to check monopoly power that no longer exists make no sense,” the Ohio Telecom Association (OTA) told the state regulator Friday. The Ohio Public Utilities Commission received comments on a five-year review of retail telecom service rules (see 2311010060). "Regulations authorizing the review of prices and restrictions on withdrawal of services were a response to the ability of monopolies to extract excess profits or otherwise injure consumers through unfair practices,” OTA commented in docket 23-817-TP-ORD. “The monopoly provision of retail communications services, however, is a relic." In addition, some PUCO rules exceed the regulator's legal authority, the association said. One is the PUCO's asserted authority to review certain charges and fees related to special construction where a phone company must build facilities in certain circumstances to fulfill a customer's request for service, it said. “The rules that assert rate review authority over excess construction charges, late payment charges, or installation fees, and reconnection fees lack an express statutory basis.”

A federal grand jury indicted Sam Randazzo, former Ohio Public Utilities Commission chairman, for alleged crimes related to bribery and embezzlement. Randazzo surrendered Monday morning at the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, said the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. Unsealed Monday, the 11-count indictment "outlines an alleged scheme in which a public regulatory official ignored the Ohio consumers he was responsible for protecting, instead taking a bribe from an energy company seeking favors," said William Rivers, FBI Cincinnati special agent in charge. An appointee of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), Randazzo chaired the Ohio PUC from April 2019 to November 2020, when he resigned following an FBI raid of his home (see 2011200039). Randazzo allegedly received more than $4.3 million from an energy company and its affiliates to provide favorable actions. Indicting the former chair “is an important step to bring justice to Ohio utility consumers,” said Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis in a statement. Willis called for “near-term reform” of the selection process for appointing Ohio PUC chairs.

The California Public Utilities Commission wants the public to speak at eight hearings in February and March about AT&T’s request for relief from carrier of last resort (COLR) requirements (docket 23-03-003), a Monday ruling by Administrative Law Judge Thomas Glegola said. The CPUC plans six in-person hearings, with two per day Feb. 6, Feb. 22 and March 14 in California cities Clovis, Ukiah and Indio. The commission scheduled two virtual hearings March 19. AT&T sought quick approval of COLR relief (see 2311070043). Consumer advocates raised objections (see 2312010043).

Consumer advocates urged the California Public Utilities Commission in a virtual meeting Wednesday to dismiss AT&T’s petition to relinquish carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations, the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office and The Utility Reform Network said in an ex parte filing Thursday in docket A.23-02-003. The advocates discussed the PAO’s motion to dismiss with aides to CPUC Commissioners John Reynolds and Darcie Houck, it said. “As a matter of law and a foregone conclusion, with no need to determine facts at an evidentiary hearing, AT&T’s Amended Application cancels the safety net provisions of the Universal Service Rules adopted by the Commission and is incompatible with the state’s ongoing commitment to universal service.” TURN said AT&T’s request “is fundamentally about dismantling the cornerstone of universal service and AT&T has failed to provide an adequate basis for the Commission to consider such drastic action.” AT&T urged quick approval of COLR relief in a virtual meeting with a Reynolds aide last month (see 2311070043).

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission plans to vote Jan. 18 on state USF and Lifeline rule changes and Feb. 8 on other telecom rule changes, said notices of proposed rulemaking released Friday. Commissioners voted 3-0 Thursday (see 2311300057) to issue the notices on proposed revisions to Chapter 55 rules for telecom services (docket RM2023-000017), Chapter 56 rules for interexchange telecom service resellers (RM2023-000018), Chapter 57 rules for operator service providers telecom services (RM2023-000019) and Chapter 59 rules for Oklahoma USF and Lifeline (RM2023-000021). Written comments in the USF and Lifeline docket are due Jan. 9 and the commission will hold technical conferences Dec. 14 and Jan. 11. The commission sought written comments for all three other dockets by Jan. 15 and set technical conferences for Jan. 4 and Jan. 25.

Charter Communications plans to spend $1.3 billion to upgrade and expand broadband across Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Thursday. “Texans who live across the big and beautiful reaches of our great state will have the same internet access that those in big cities do,” Abbott said. Charter said in a separate news release that it plans to spend $700 million to upgrade its Texas network to provide symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds. The project will be “substantially complete” by the end of 2025, it said. Also, the cable company will spend nearly $620 million to expand the network to about 140,000 unserved and underserved locations, Charter said.

Texas Public Utility Commissioners unanimously backed a sweeping update to the state’s Chapter 26 substantive telecommunications rules at a Thursday meeting. Commissioners voted 4-0 for a staff proposal posted last week in docket 54589 (see 2311210054). The Texas Telephone Association applauded the decision. “This was a significant overhaul of telecommunications rules in Texas, paired with new rules for the implementation of sweeping legislative changes earlier this year,” TTA Executive Director Mark Seale wrote in an email.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted 3-0 at a Thursday meeting to post NPRMs on amending four telecom chapters of commission rules. The notices, which weren’t available immediately, will open proceedings on revising Chapter 55 rules for telecom services (docket RM2023-000017), Chapter 56 rules for interexchange telecom service resellers (RM2023-000018), Chapter 57 rules for operator service providers telecom services (RM2023-000019) and Chapter 59 rules for Oklahoma USF and Lifeline (RM2023-000021).