CTIA asked a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel to reconsider a Kentucky 911 case. Earlier this month, the 6th Circuit said the U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky erred in concluding that a Kentucky 911 law conflicts with and is preempted by the 2018 federal Wireless Telecom Tax and Fee Collection Fairness Act (see 2112030060). The wireless association asked the original 6th Circuit panel Friday to rehear or, “at minimum,” vacate the district court opinion, “decline to definitively address these questions of law, and permit the district court on remand to address these issues in the first instance.” The appeals judges “took too narrow a view of the federal interests that would be obstructed should Kentucky be permitted to impose these special burdens on Lifeline participation,” CTIA wrote. “The panel left unaddressed a few key arguments CTIA made that illuminate the ‘full purposes’ of Congress under the Communications Act” and the wireless tax fairness law “to safeguard federal universal service funds,” it said.

LTD Broadband CEO Corey Hauer condemned the California Public Utilities Commission for allegedly “trying to prevent broadband” and “railroad” it out of the state. On a Broadband.money webinar Friday, Hauer said he was “super disappointed” the CPUC voted 5-0 Thursday to deny LTD the application approval it needed to get about $187.5 million in Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF) support over 10 years (see 2112160064). Hauer also slammed the agency for granting California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) subsidies Thursday in areas that partially overlap with RDOF awards. Every RDOF winner has experienced an “intentional 18-month delay” to get eligible telecom certification in California, so it’s “ironic” that the CPUC dismissed their opposition to the CASF grants due to the RDOF winners not yet having ETC certificates, said Hauer. The CPUC unanimously granted both the denial and contested CASF grants in one vote clearing its consent agenda, leading Hauer “to believe they didn't read a lot of the things that they voted on.” California is “the only state in the country that … isn’t running a serious attempt to get RDOF funding going,” he said. The commission didn’t comment Friday. Hauer dismissed “chatter around how expensive it is to put in fiber.” Compared to urban areas, rural areas have a “different cost structure” and “cadence of construction” because there are no water, sewer or buried electric lines, he said: “The beauty of the rural areas is our lower cost structure sort of makes up for the lack of density.”

The Utah Rural Telecom Association supported state USF changes in comments Thursday at the Public Service Commission. Draft rules may take effect Jan. 1 (see 2111150065). One proposed change to establish an $18 per line monthly broadband subsidy for low-income customers “will have a significant positive impact on the affordability of broadband in rural Utah,” the association said in docket 21-R008-04. Setting a standard $25 per line monthly rate to be imputed to rate-of-return regulated providers for wholesale consumer broadband-only loops, up from the current weighted average rate of $8.97, will ensure consistency among rate-of-return carriers and help preserve Utah USF, it said.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) blames Lumen for technological failures that caused a 911 outage in December 2018, the AG's office said Thursday in testimony filed with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission in docket UT-181051. Lumen also failed to notify call centers, the testimony said. The company should pay the maximum $7.2 million penalty proposed last year by the UTC (see 2012230021), said Ferguson: “Thousands of Washingtonians called 911 only to be met with a busy signal.” Lumen failures caused another 911 outage in 2014, the AG's office noted. "The December 2018 event was caused by an unexpected issue with a vendor’s network equipment and impacted some calls that another Washington state 911 provider was responsible to complete," a Lumen spokesperson emailed: The carrier is sure the UTC "will reject the allegations in the complaint and in the attorney general’s testimony when the commission is presented with all the relevant information."

Verizon Wireless and Hudson, New York, are settling a wireless infrastructure dispute, Verizon said Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Binghamton. Parties seek two weeks to execute and submit the pact, the carrier said in case 1:2021cv00774.

LTD Broadband “is managerially, financially and technically qualified” to bring broadband to nearly 77,000 unserved California locations, the Rural Digital Opportunities Fund winner said in a Tuesday filing at the California Public Utilities Commission. LTD met Friday with an aide to Commissioner Darcie Houck about the CPUC’s proposed decision to deny LTD applications for eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation and a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN). LTD sought to distance itself from former state counsel Kristopher Twomey, who was fired. Twomey’s “malfeasance was unilateral,” and “so egregious that it cannot be imputed to LTD,” said the filing. Commissioners plan to vote Thursday on the proposed denial (see 2112080046).

With settlement talks underway in a Lumen service quality probe (see 2106290048), the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission removed an item on next steps from its Dec. 22 meeting agenda. The state attorney general’s office sought delay Wednesday in docket C-20-432. The AG office, state Commerce Department, Communications Workers of America and Lumen plan to craft a settlement for PUC approval, with the first preliminary meeting set for Thursday, wrote Assistant AG Kristin Berkland: Parties will update the commission in about 60 days and every 30 days thereafter.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein (D) praised the FCC for shortening the deadline for small voice service providers that aren’t facilities-based to implement Stir/Shaken in the IP portions of their networks (see 2112100070). The FCC shortened it by one year to June 30. Stein and 50 other state AGs asked for a faster timeframe in August. “Far too many illegal robocalls that scam people out of their hard-earned money are possible due to these smaller networks,” said Stein. “If we’re going to fight robocalls effectively, then companies big and small need to have this technology.”

More state telehealth bills passed in 2021 than in any prior year, the Center for Connected Health Policy reported Tuesday. Across 47 states, 201 bills passed this year, nearly double the total in 2020, when 36 states enacted 104 bills, it said.

Forty-four states had broadband deployment grant programs last fall, with 2021 appropriations ranging from $500,000 in Montana to $100 million in Iowa and Tennessee, Pew reported Monday. “Although many of these programs generally share a common focus on increasing availability and subscription rates in communities without sufficient access, they vary across states regarding the amount of funding available, specific goals, speeds standards, eligibility, and required level of community engagement.” Grant programs usually support last-mile, though Colorado and Minnesota allow localities to use grants for middle-mile, Pew said. States prioritize unserved areas, which usually means places that don’t meet the federal definition of having at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload, it said: Missouri, Florida and Oregon use 10/1 Mbps. Many states, including Illinois and Minnesota, allow funding for underserved areas, but “limited funding and the emphasis states place on unserved areas mean that grant funding often runs out before underserved areas can be considered,” Pew said. Most states are technology neutral, though Washington state eligibility rules exclude DSL and Indiana cuts out satellite, Pew found: Some states consider affordability and adoption. All states cap funding per project, with maximums ranging from $1 million in Kansas and Pennsylvania to $10 million in California, it said.