“Broadband is an essential service and is not yet accessible to all Californians,” said new California Public Utilities Commission President Alice Reynolds at her first CPUC meeting Thursday. Reynolds, who replaced now-retired Marybel Batjer (see 2112160064), is “very excited” about recently announced state and federal funding, “and the commission has an important role going forward to help communities both rural and urban that have been left behind for too long,” she said virtually. “We must work with local and tribal governments, consumer advocates and the public to build networks that provide modern, affordable and reliable broadband service that is future-proof, lasting for decades to come.” Reynolds showed “she is committed to continue the groundbreaking work being undertaken in California to extend high quality, affordable and reliable broadband to everyone in our state,” emailed Regina Costa, The Utility Reform Network telecom director: “We are very pleased that she values the collaboration with consumer advocates, Tribes, the public and local governments.” Also at the meeting, CPUC commissioners voted 4-0 to adopt a consent agenda including a proposed resolution (T-17758) to adopt $34.6 million in California High Cost Fund-A support for 2022. The funding goes to CalTel and nine other small LECs. The CPUC is down to four commissioners because former member Martha Guzman Aceves left to become administrator of EPA Region 9.

Arizona Corporation Commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday to require staff to open a state USF rulemaking in docket T-00000A-20-0336. Chairwoman Lea Marquez Peterson (R) seeks to support broadband (see 2111090001). Democrats Sandra Kennedy and Anna Tovar voted no.

Louisiana’s broadband office got $450 million in funding requests from 23 companies in the first round of the state's $177 million Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities (GUMBO) program, ConnectLA said Wednesday. The applications are for projects in 58 of 64 parishes, it said. The agency plans to OK about $90 million in GUMBO round one, which will be announced in March, with construction starting in May, it said. “As we review applications and grant awards in the following months, we will grow closer to our goal of eliminating the digital divide by 2029,” said ConnectLA Executive Director Veneeth Iyengar.

Ohio will give $3 million to Ohio State University to design broadband and 5G curriculum, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted (R) said Tuesday. OSU will pick a nonprofit telecom industry partner to lead the effort meant to increase skilled workforce numbers.

Carriers resisted a California Public Utilities Commission staff proposal to apply a utility affordability framework to telecom services through the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). Don't adopt a staff proposal to apply affordability metrics to essential communications services “because the purpose of this proceeding should be to develop the metrics, not apply them,” AT&T commented Monday in docket R.18-07-006: The CPUC "lacks jurisdiction to set prices for wireless and broadband services” and consumers can get affordable broadband through the new federal affordable connectivity program. California lacks wireless jurisdiction and the CPUC addresses affordability through the state LifeLine program, said CTIA: competition keeps wireless service cheap. Applying the staff proposal "to communications services that are not rate-regulated telecommunications services would run counter to the Staff’s goal to bridge the digital divide,” said the California Cable and Telecommunications Association. "The Commission has expressly abstained from regulating the intrastate rates of nearly all competitive voice service providers” and “is precluded by law from regulating broadband prices, which are controlled by a competitive market.” CalTel and other small rural LECs agreed the agency lacks broadband authority. Limit using the metrics “to informing consumers in the Commission’s annual affordability report” and in the commission’s LifeLine proceeding, they said. Communications services mostly aren't rate-regulated, but the CPUC should consider affordability when providers submit merger and other kinds of applications, commented the Center for Accessible Technology. Applying an affordability framework could help the CPUC identify broadband projects for state funding, said the National Diversity Coalition. The Utility Reform Network agreed with CPUC staff that CASF could benefit from incorporating affordability metrics, but added that the commission should incorporate the framework in all of its communications decision-making processes. The agency should revise its proposal so the metric is used to “analyze affordability generally” rather than set prices for low-income broadband plans, said the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office.

Oral argument on Florida’s social media law in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will happen the week of April 25, the court said Monday. In case 21-12355, Florida is challenging a lower court’s preliminary injunction stopping enforcement of the law that makes it unlawful for sites to deplatform political candidates and requires sites to be transparent about policing (see 2112210018).

Eversource “can’t keep up” with a growing “avalanche” of pole attachment requests under the state’s current cost structure, said Assistant General Counsel Vincent Pace at a Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) virtual hearing Monday. With increasing broadband demand, the utility expects 70,000 attachment requests this year, up from 4,600 in 2016, he said. The company spent $11 million last year for operation and maintenance costs and $19 million capital for make-ready work, he said: In 2022, it expects $19 million and $32 million, respectively. “We just do not have the resources to meet this level of work, and unless we have a different framework in place, the effort to expand broadband will simply be frustrated.” Eversource suggests that pole attachers cover a larger share of costs. Communications attachers that trigger pole make-ready work “should pay for their proportionate share using cost-causation principles.” Owners should be able to use a portion of pole rental revenue to pay for the work, he said: Currently, any increase in annual rental revenue goes back to electric customers. Eversource plans to explore if federal infrastructure dollars can be used to fund work; attachers should do the same, he said. “After exhausting all these steps, if the work is still not funded, we propose to defer the amount for PURA’s review at the time of our next rate case.” Eversource doesn’t object to adopting the FCC’s approach to one-touch, make-ready. Stakeholders commented last month in the same docket (19-01-52RE01).

A federal judge cleared a settlement between Verizon and Hudson, New York, to resolve a wireless infrastructure dispute (see 2112150066). U.S. District Court in Binghamton, New York, Judge Thomas McAvoy signed the stipulation and order Friday in case 1:2021cv00774.

Defending a New Jersey prorating rule challenged by Altice, acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck (D) pointed the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to Tuesday’s 1st Circuit decision finding Maine’s prorating law isn’t rate regulation preempted by the Cable Act (see 2201040072). The 3rd Circuit is weighing a New Jersey Board of Public Utilities appeal of a lower court’s March 23 opinion agreeing with Altice that the BPU’s prorating rule is preempted (see 2108240043). "A unanimous panel of the First Circuit held an analogous proration requirement is not preempted by the Cable Act, reversing the contrary decision of the District of Maine on which the court below (and Altice) extensively relied,” Bruck wrote Wednesday. “The panel rejected precisely the same preemption arguments Altice presents here.” The 3rd Circuit earlier scheduled a hearing Jan. 27 in Philadelphia. Altice didn’t comment now.

New York state will give broadband grants to municipalities as part of a $1 billion initiative announced Wednesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in a State of the State address. The “ConnectALL” effort will empower local municipalities and state agencies to set up nation-leading broadband infrastructure statewide,” Hochul said in a news release. A new broadband office will direct three grant programs, including one that will provide funding to municipalities, nonprofits and others to build open public broadband infrastructure, the governor’s office said. A second program will provide matching grants, plus federal infrastructure dollars, to support last-mile and middle-mile broadband in rural areas; a third will provide competitive grants for connectivity pilot programs, it said. The New York Department of Public Service will develop a broadband map and lead a marketing effort to increase participation in the $30 monthly federal broadband subsidy program, and other state agencies will seek to retrofit affordable housing projects with broadband, Hochul’s office said. The state will develop a digital equity plan and grant program, with a director to be appointed to spearhead those efforts, it said. The state plans regulatory changes including eliminating state use and occupancy fees, streamlining the make-ready process and standardizing right-of-way access for wireless and fiber deployments, the office said. Also, a planned pilot will use existing state fiber to support middle mile, it said. "It is extremely exciting to see New York specifically encourage publicly owned open broadband infrastructure," emailed Christopher Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance director-community broadband networks. "The communities that need these funds have often waited the longest for high-quality Internet access and they may soon have some of the best access at the lowest prices in the state." New York Public Utility Law Project is "heartened" by Hochul's broadband focus, especially with COVID-19 "imperiling in-person schooling and threatening potential closures again," emailed Executive Director Richard Berkley: The state has more than a million homes without fast internet "and many more households with substandard and expensive broadband." CTIA Senior Vice President-State Affairs Jamie Hastings said Hochul's announcement "recognizes the important role of wireless in helping to close the digital divide."