Michigan’s broadband office recommended $238 million in broadband infrastructure grants using money from the U.S. Treasury Capital Projects Fund (CPF). The Michigan High-Speed Internet Office said it selected 24 projects from 11 applicants; it received 154 applications from 40 applicants. The broadband office said the awarded projects aim to connect about 106,000 homes, businesses and institutions. Applicants committed more than $311 million in matching funds, it said. Whether the projects get any or some of the recommended funding depends on a 45-day comment and objection window that closes July 31, the office noted. Iowa is readying nearly $149 million in broadband grants through CPF, said Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) Monday. Applications will be accepted July 14 through Aug. 25, with decisions to be announced Sept. 22. It’s the eighth funding availability for Iowa, which awarded about $353 million in grants over the previous seven rounds.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska seeks comments by July 19 on making Alaska USF emergency regulations permanent, said an RCA notice released Monday. The commission filed the emergency regs with the lieutenant governor’s office Thursday (see 2306160041). The emergency rules take effect July 1 and expire Oct. 28. Making them permanent would extend the AUSF sunset through June 30, 2026.

Alaska and North Carolina had spikes in broadband serviceable locations (BSLs) on the FCC map after the federal agency’s May 30 update, the states said last week. Some other states told us the national map improved but still needs work (see 2306130041). “As a result of our commitment to work as a team with the FCC,” the Alaska broadband office saw 61,000 BSLs added to the national map for its state, a spokesperson said Thursday. “The Alaska Broadband Office is optimistic that the NTIA will consider the unique nature of Alaska when calculating” its broadband, equity, access and deployment funding allocation. The North Carolina broadband offices’ nearly 43,000 challenges to the FCC map helped find 115,000 more homes and businesses lacking access to high-speed internet, the state’s information tech department said Thursday. “This more accurate picture will help us more effectively and efficiently close the digital divide to help North Carolinians get online for telemedicine, education, services and business,” said Gov. Roy Cooper (D).

"Affordable and reliable telecommunications services are essential to the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare of the people of Alaska,” according to Alaska USF emergency regulations the Regulatory Commission of Alaska filed Thursday at the lieutenant governor's office. The commission adopted the rules in docket R-21-001 at a June 7 meeting (see 2306070050). They'll take effect July 1 and expire Oct. 28 unless made permanent by the RCA, said Thursday’s filing. Existing AUSF rules sunset on June 30.

The District of Columbia’s 911 office would have to share data regularly and update the public under a transparency bill proposed last week by Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Chairperson Brooke Pinto (D). The bill aims to increase accountability by requiring the Office of Unified Communications to provide information on operations, efficacy and accuracy, Pinto’s office said Thursday. The bill would require the agency to post monthly data on the number of call-taker and dispatcher errors, shifts using minimum staffing levels, answer times and calls dropped and the number and type of 911 misuse calls. "OUC is a critical part of our public safety apparatus and it is crucial that the agency is functioning with accuracy, efficiency, and timeliness,“ said Pinto. "Patterns of errors at OUC are unacceptable especially with so much at stake in emergency situations.” The D.C. Council confirmed Heather McGaffin last month as OUC's new director (see 2305170017). In meetings on the confirmation, Pinto's committee sought improvements at the 911 center, where recent audits found problems with incorrect addresses, miscommunication and dispatching delays (see 2305090073).

The Pennsylvania House passed bills to fund 911 and 988 calling services Wednesday. Members voted 121-82 for HB-1304, which would hike the $1.65 surcharge for 911 to $1.97 in 2024, with it going up each year after based on the consumer price index. The House voted 113-90 for HB-1305, which would establish a 988 fund and levy a fee of 6 cents on mobile and IP voice service lines starting in 2024, with the fee going up each year at the same rate as the CPI. The bills passed committees last week (see 2306070027). On Tuesday, the House voted 203-0 for a bill (HB-1138) to exempt mobile telecom from the state’s sales and use tax and gross receipts tax.

Washington state regulators slapped Lumen with nearly $1.32 million in penalties for a December 2018 outage that resulted in at least 13,000 dropped or incomplete 911 calls. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission issued a final order Friday in docket UT-181051. "CenturyLink committed at least 13,000 violations of” a state rule “by failing to render prompt, expeditious, and efficient service; to keep its facilities, instrumentalities, and equipment in good condition and repair; and to ensure that its appliances, instrumentalities, and services are modern, adequate, sufficient, and efficient,” said the Washington UTC, assessing $100 per violation. Also, the UTC assessed $1,000 for each of 15 violations of a separate state regulation requiring telecom companies to promptly notify the commission and affected public safety answering points. “The service disruption lasting 49 hours and 32 minutes in December 2018 was a serious health and safety threat to Washington state residents,” the UTC said. “CenturyLink failed both in its obligations under statutory provisions and Commission rules to adequately manage and provide 911 service.” The penalty was lower than the $7.2 million penalty sought by Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) in 2021 (see 2112160048). Lumen cooperated with the state commission’s investigation, a Lumen spokesperson said Monday: “We know that when someone calls 911, seconds count, and we take that responsibility seriously.”

Gov. Greg Abbott supported a Texas broadband fund Friday. The Republican signed HB-9, the companion bill to a constitutional amendment that would set up a fund to provide $1.5 billion over two years (see 2305300057). Voters will consider the amendment Nov. 7.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission received a settlement proposal in a pole attachments case. Frontier Communications, Monongahela Power and Potomac Edison (MP/PE), Citynet, Micrologic and West Virginia PSC staff filed a joint stipulation on the pact Friday in case 22-0885-T-E-SC. The agreement responded to commission scrutiny about duplicative processes slowing pole-attachment application reviews (see 2302280046). “The Stipulating Parties undertook extensive discussions and meetings in an effort to resolve the issues raised by [PSC] Staff,” they said. They didn’t address every pole-attachment process issue and “reserve the right to bring those issues in a separate proceeding,” the parties said. Before the settlement can become final, PSC legal staff must respond and the commission must decide to approve or deny the agreement, an agency spokesperson said Monday.

Don’t waive penalties for Verizon's failing to move more than 170,000 TracFone customers to its network in California, said Center for Accessible Technology and The Utility Reform Network in a Friday letter. The consumer groups urged the California Public Utilities Commission to deny Verizon’s request for another year to migrate customers. It’s “a transparent attempt by Verizon to avoid the mitigation conditions, including fines, imposed in the decision approving the merger and escape the consequences of its own inaction,” wrote CforAT and TURN: The carrier appears to be “insufficiently committed” to the migration. CforAT legal counsel Paul Goodman told us about his group’s concerns earlier last week (see 2306080055).