Massachusetts legislators who want to promote rural broadband should crack down on “exorbitant” make-ready rates charged by pole owners in unserved areas, said state Rep. John Barrett (D) at a Joint Telecommunications Committee virtual hearing Friday. Barrett proposed H-3256 to exempt municipalities from paying make-ready fees to use poles for providing broadband to unserved areas. He sees a “lack of oversight” on poles and thinks locally owned broadband could bring “effective competition” to areas that now have one cable company selling high-speed service at high prices, Barrett said: Maine enacted a law like H-3256 and hasn’t been sued yet.

A Connecticut House chair warned the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority not to make one-touch, make-ready rules without the legislature’s direction. PURA is mulling OTMR rules in docket 19-01-52RE01 (see 2108120062). Policymakers removed OTMR from a recent bill, now law, submitted by Gov. Ned Lamont (D) after much debate, said Energy and Technology Committee Chair David Arconti (D) in a letter posted Thursday: “An agency should not attempt to legislate outside of the purview of the legislature.” If the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and Office of Consumer Counsel want OTMR, they should resubmit a legislative proposal to Arconti’s committee, he said. A PURA spokesperson emailed Thursday, "All feedback is taken under serious consideration by the commissioners. At this stage, we are simply in the information-gathering phase."

Verizon and Rochester, New York, must respond by Nov. 18 to each other’s summary judgment motions, said a U.S. District Court in Rochester order (in Pacer) Thursday. Replies are due Dec. 2 in case 6:19-cv-06583-EAW-MWP on whether the city charges excessive fees for installing 5G infrastructure (see 1908120021). “The City has failed to establish that either its small cell or fiber fees are cost-based,” in violation of the FCC’s 2018 small-cells order, said Verizon's Wednesday motion. “Its small cell fees are five times higher than the FCC’s presumptively reasonable amounts.” The city said the carrier doesn’t and can’t show the fees effectively prohibited the company from providing telecom services. These fees “are exactly the sort of fair and neutral compensation that municipalities are expressly allowed to collect under” Communications Act Section 253.

All California Public Utilities Commissioners OK'd post-disaster community engagement and reporting requirements for investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and facilities-based telecom providers. Commissioners supported a consent agenda including a somewhat revised proposal and a separate item adding pole attachment data fields at Thursday's virtual meeting. One edit to the disaster item in the broadband-for-all docket (R.20-09-011) clarified that a first informational advice letter would be due in 15 business -- not calendar -- days, a change sought by CTIA. The CPUC added the phrase “at this time” to a sentence saying it's not requiring IOUs to install fiber during service restoration. The order means “more timely restoral and better restoral” after outages, said Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves. It responds to locality complaints about insufficient communication, she said. Telcos ask what disaster recovery rules have to do with the broadband-for-all proceeding (see 2110070046).

AT&T plans to reinforce its Louisiana network against storms by spending “tens of millions of dollars” to bury fiber that was previously on poles in areas hardest hit by Hurricane Ida, the carrier said Wednesday. The project will focus on parts of the Bayou parishes and in and around New Orleans, it said. AT&T aims to finish in the first half of 2022, completing most work this year, it said. A spokesperson declined to give a specific dollar amount.

The FCC hosts a consumer webinar on spoofing and robocalls with Hawaii's attorney general Oct. 28 at 5:30 p.m. EDT, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Wednesday.

The District of Columbia added CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a defendant in a 2018 Facebook lawsuit on its handling of data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal (see 1812190039), D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine (D) tweeted Wednesday. “Our continuing investigation revealed that he was personally involved in decisions related to Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s failure to protect user data.” A Facebook spokesperson said, “These allegations are as meritless today as they were more than three years ago, when the District filed its complaint. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously and focus on the facts.”

At least 40 governors talked about broadband’s importance and connection to education and healthcare in state-of-the-state addresses this year, the National Governors Association reported Tuesday: Governors are addressing affordability through direct customer assistance, grants, expanding service options and investing in infrastructure and anchor institutions.

The National Association of State 911 Administrators asked the FCC to begin a rulemaking or notice of inquiry on improving 911 services, in a petition posted Tuesday in docket 94-102. NASNA asked the commission to establish authority "over originating service providers' ... delivery of 911 services through IP-based emergency services networks," advance next-generation 911 implementation, and "require the cost of compliance" to be the responsibility of originating service providers. It asked the agency to consider establishing an "NG911 Readiness Registry."

A New Jersey state court agreed with a federal court that the Cable Act preempts a New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) prorating rule challenged by Altice. The Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division reversed the requirement in an unpublished opinion Friday. The division said U.S. District Court Judge for New Jersey Brian Martinotti “reviewed the same facts and issues and determined preemption applied” in a March 23 opinion, which was challenged to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2104230051). “After considering the judge's cogent reasoning and the lack of New Jersey case law compelling an opposite outcome, we adopt the reasoning articulated by Judge Martinotti, finding the Cable Act expressly preempted N.J.A.C. 14:18-3.8(c).” The Cable Act authorizes states to enact only consumer protection laws that aren't specifically preempted, the division said. The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel is disappointed and will review options for next steps, emailed acting Rate Counsel Director Brian Lipman Monday: “We continue to believe that this is a customer service issue under the BPU’s jurisdiction and that the BPU properly moved to protect the rights of New Jersey cable ratepayers.” The New Jersey attorney general’s office declined to comment. Altice didn’t comment.