The California Public Utilities Commission is seeking comments on how much authority it has to regulate non-voice inmate calling services, said Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves in a Monday scoping memo in docket R.20-10-002. A “central question" is whether the CPUC has authority to regulate rates, fees and service quality issues for video calling services, written communications including SMS and email, and “entertainment services such as photo sharing, music or video entertainment and/or internet access services,” the commissioner wrote. Comments on that and other questions are due in 60 days, replies 30 days later. “I anticipate an early decision addressing jurisdictional issues,” Guzman Aceves said. Her memo estimated a decision would come about 90 to 120 days after replies are filed. The CPUC plans a workshop on cost structures in Q1, the commissioner said. Later, parties will comment on appropriate method and data sources the CPUC should use to inform adoption of permanent voice-only ICS rate caps and fee requirements, and possible interim or permanent rules for the other service types, she said: Service quality, privacy and other issues will be deferred to a later phase of the proceeding. The CPUC extended the proceeding’s statutory deadline to May 29, 2023, from April 8, 2022.

It’s a “real stretch” to say Ohio's privacy bill would protect consumer privacy, said American Civil Liberties Union Ohio Chief Lobbyist Gary Daniels in an interview. ACLU seeks a private right of action, but HB-376 requires only AG enforcement, which companies would be able to avoid by fixing any raised problems within 30 days, he said. ACLU prefers opt-in to the proposed opt-out approach, and the bill would give consumers only a right to request certain information, he said. Lt. Gov. Jon Husted’s (R) support for the bill doesn’t guarantee it passes the Republican-majority legislature because some legislators in his own party have clashed with him and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) over government authority responding to COVID-19, said Daniels. At a September hearing, HB-376 sponsors said they think the bill strikes the right balance between protecting consumers and being fair with businesses (see 2109280042).

Small ISPs opposed Frontier Communications winning California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) support under two draft resolutions at the California Public Utilities Commission. Draft resolution T-17749 would inappropriately award CASF funds in areas that overlap parts of where Etheric Communications won Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support, Etheric and GeoLinks wrote the CPUC Communications Division Tuesday. Those telcos and LTD Broadband wrote in a separate letter that draft resolution T-17754 would improperly send support to areas overlapping parts of Etheric and LTD Broadband’s RDOF award areas. “The CASF applications could be denied in their entirety because duplicative funding is a waste of ratepayer resources, and particularly troubling because the remaining CASF money is insufficient to fund all applications submitted in 2020,” the ISPs wrote in both letters. At least remove overlapping areas from the award or wait until verifying the FCC confirmed Etheric’s RDOF award, they said.

Massachusetts legislators heard bills to rein in facial recognition technology at a Joint Judiciary Committee virtual hearing Tuesday. Facial recognition dangerously facilitates government surveillance, and the technology discriminates against people of color, said Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Stone Creem (D). “This is happening,” said Creem, including in Massachusetts schools where districts are using facial identification on kids without parents’ knowledge. Her bill (S-47) would ban such government ID in public locations. Police could perform a facial recognition search with a warrant or in emergencies. Several municipalities including Springfield already ban facial surveillance, said state Rep. Orlando Ramos (D) in support of his similar H-135. The tech is “inconsistent, inaccurate and overall dangerous” for people of color who are frequently misidentified, he said. Current state law regulates law enforcement but not non-police entities like schools and public transportation, he said. Regulating government use of facial recognition is a “good start,” but Rep. Dylan Fernandes (D) is more concerned about a private company using the tech for profit, he said. His H-117 would cover anyone “including corporate affiliates, that collects, stores, or processes facial recognition data,” but not government. Facial ID could have “vast consequences for our society, but there are very few rules guiding it,” said Fernandes.

Lumen is seeking to remove two service quality metrics from Wyoming interconnection rules, the Wyoming Public Service Commission said Friday. The telco seeks to eliminate performance indicator definitions and a performance assurance plan (PAP) from CLEC interconnection agreements, said the PSC: Lumen proposed the change “due to the decline in CLEC orders for services under the PAP, rendering the program obsolete.” Comments are due Dec. 20.

Maryland doubled down on its argument that the Tax Injunction Act bars federal challenge of the state’s digital advertising tax. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last month argued that case 1:21-cv-00410 is "ripe" at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland (see 2110140032). In a supplemental brief Friday, Maryland said 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "precedent unquestionably compels the conclusion that the digital ad tax is a 'tax' and not a 'penalty' for purposes of applying the Tax Injunction Act." A penalty would apply only to unlawful conduct, it said.

Rochester, New York, urged a court to reject summary judgment against it in Verizon’s challenge of the city’s annual right-of-way compensation for small-cell wireless and linear telecom facilities. Verizon has no telecom facilities there, the city wrote Thursday in case 19-cv-6583 at U.S. District Court in Rochester. “Plaintiff does not demonstrate that the City’s fees presently do or ever will prohibit it from providing telecommunications services, and plaintiff also fails to demonstrate that the fees charged by the City exceed a reasonable approximation of the City’s objectively reasonable costs related to those (non-existent) telecommunications facilities.” Verizon said Rochester doesn’t “seriously attempt to argue that its fees comply with federal law.” The city’s own code says the challenged fees are meant to recover more than the city’s costs, which violates Section 253 of the Telecom Act and the FCC’s 2018 small-cells order, it said. Replies are due Dec. 2 (see 2110210065).

An Ohio anti-robocalls bill cleared the legislature. The House voted 85-2 Wednesday for SB-54, a bill to allow attorney general action against misleading caller ID (see 2110280004). The Senate passed it 31-1 in May. It needs gubernatorial OK.

States should use “mind-blowingly huge” broadband dollars from the recently signed infrastructure law as a “hook to really do transformative change,” said Colorado state Sen. Kerry Donovan (D) at a livestreamed NewDEAL annual conference Thursday. The author of Colorado’s net neutrality law advised colleagues in the progressive state and local leaders group that rather than “write a policy that just says, here’s how we’re going to spend the dollars,” they can “address structural flaws that you’ll never be able to pass again if you don’t have the dollar figure tied to that policy.” That’s because the telecom industry “is one of the most challenging, well-resourced lobbying groups to ... take on,” she said. Government must step in where businesses won’t go, even if they won’t yet admit they won’t, said Florida state Sen. Loranne Ausley (D). “Now we have the money." Don’t exclude industry from talks, she cautioned: “I tried to get things done without bringing the industry to the table. It can’t be done.”

The National League of Cities has been meeting with the Commerce Department and Economic Development Administration to ensure small and rural communities have access to grant dollars available for broadband under the recently enacted infrastructure bill, NLC Executive Director Clarence Anthony said at an NLC City Summit virtual news-media briefing Wednesday. “Most of that funding is going to be routed through state governments,” but local governments can compete for some grants, plus some state funding “is intended to be passed directly to localities,” said Director-Federal Advocacy Irma Esparza Diggs: Cities also will pay attention to digital equity programs.