The Telecommunications Association of Maine challenged criteria and assumptions used by a state agency to support defining broadband as 100 Mbps symmetrical. The ConnectMaine Authority held a Zoom virtual hearing Monday and seeks comment by Oct. 14 on changes to state broadband rules, including also defining unserved as an area lacking 50/10 Mbps. Maine previously used 25/3 Mbps for unserved and for broadband. Zoom requires 4 Mbps symmetrical for a meeting of about 50 people, so if everyone in a five-person family was doing that simultaneously it would require 20/20 Mbps, said TAM Executive Director Ben Sanborn. “How do we get to that 100/100 from that point?” he asked: TAM wants “a little more transparency as to how you got there, as opposed to [you] just kind of picked a number, because that is arbitrary and capricious.” The authority adopted the definition in June, said ConnectMaine Director Peggy Schaffer. Sanborn replied, “Yes, without rationale.”

The FCC made few revisions to its final Further NPRM on shielding public safety answering points from illegal robocalls, according to our comparison to the draft (see 2109230052). The FNPRM added a question seeking comment on whether to “expand use of the commission’s Reassigned Numbers Database (RND) as a means to prevent unwanted calls to PSAPs,” it said. Comments will be due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, 45 days for replies.

The FCC Wireless Bureau OK’d a waiver for California’s Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation to use 2.5 GHz spectrum for broadband on two parcels adjacent to its reservation “each of which include trust and fee lands interspersed with non-Tribal lands.” The bureau previously approved use of the band on the reservation. Absent a waiver, the tribe “would have no reasonable alternative in providing service to its trust and fee lands,” Thursday's order said: “The nature of the trust and fee land being interspersed with non-Tribal land presents technical challenges in establishing a wireless network.”

New York state awarded $45 million in grants to counties and New York City to enhance emergency communications, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Wednesday. Counties plan to use this year’s support to add national interoperability channels, build new towers and land mobile radio systems and move to P25 technology, her office said.

A New York village must grant ExteNet’s small-cells application, ruled U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York. Briefs by Plandrome “are rich in heated invective but poor in supporting facts or law,” Judge Gary Brown wrote (in Pacer, case 2:19-cv-07054) Wednesday. “Defendants’ indignant tirade is particularly unbecoming given that ... it was plaintiff who engaged in good faith in a particularly arduous and drawn-out application review process for over a year, only to have its application denied on mere pretense.” Plandrome placed a 12-month moratorium on approving telecom facility applications in July 2017, then in September 2018 imposed requirements on applicants including on aesthetics, recounted the order. At 2019 hearings, residents raised concerns about aesthetics and RF safety, with some board members indicating they shared RF concerns, Brown said. The company agreed to four extensions requested by the village, with the last until Nov. 18, 2019, when at a hearing the board unanimously denied an application for eight nodes, he said. It unanimously denied two more in January 2020. “None of the Board’s findings are supported by substantial evidence,” Brown ruled: ExteNet showed a gap in service and that proposed facilities would remedy it with minimal community impact. The municipality didn't comment.

Landline service quality standards should extend to broadband, VoIP and wireless, California’s Public Advocates Office said Wednesday. The PAO filed a petition asking the state Public Utilities Commission to open a rulemaking to treat all four communication types as essential services. The independent office within the CPUC also said the agency should change its current policy of letting carriers invest in their own networks the amount of proposed fines in lieu of paying those penalties. PAO cited “broad authority” for extending service quality standards under the California Constitution, PUC rules and state police power. Net neutrality decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. District Court for Eastern California said the FCC 2018 order didn't preempt state action on broadband services, the office added. VoIP and wireless service providers are “telephone corporations” over which the commission has authority, the office said. “Congress left to the states the ability to regulate the terms and conditions of wireless service in order to protect customers.” A state law that banned the commission from regulating VoIP and IP-enabled services sunset Jan. 1, 2020 (see 1909120072), it said. Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen last week supported launching a rulemaking to review the penalty policy (see 2109230067). The PAO said the existing structure doesn't ensure compliance by the state's biggest telcos AT&T and Frontier Communications and isn’t “measurably improving service quality.” AT&T, the California Cable and Telecommunications Association, USTelecom and CTIA didn’t comment. Frontier and the Voice on the Net Coalition declined to comment.

Oakland legislation to require ISP choice in multiple tenant environments cleared the city council’s Community and Economic Development Committee 4-0. The MTE proposal to restrict landlords from forcing tenants to use a certain ISP is modeled after a 2016 San Francisco law, not including a part on sharing in-use wiring that the FCC preempted under then-Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1907100020). San Francisco’s law has worked well for five years, said sponsor Councilmember Noel Gallo at Tuesday's livestreamed hearing. It will help “to equalize the playing field for people who need access to affordable Wi-Fi,” said Councilmember Carroll Fife. Competitive ISPs can expand into Oakland only “if they can get a toehold in the denser areas of the city that are more economical to service,” said Media Alliance Executive Director Tracy Rosenberg. Landlords are following San Francisco’s law without the city attorney taking enforcement actions, she said. Fife asked if Rosenberg expected Oakland landlords to object. The Media Alliance official said she contacted the local rental association about a week and half ago but hadn’t heard back. Nobody representing landlords testified. The proposal next goes to the Rules Committee for scheduling. The FCC is collecting comments on MTE broadband access (see 2109070047).

The FCC should "develop and implement methods for collecting and reporting accurate and complete data on broadband access, especially on tribal lands where service is known to be lacking," GAO recommended Tuesday. It said stakeholders identified limitations in location data for the broadband serviceable location fabric as a "key challenge" for the agency. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Reps. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., sought the review. FCC officials told GAO it plans to award a one-year contract with the option for four additional years to update the location fabric with new data "at least twice a year." GAO interviewed officials from the FCC, Census Bureau, NTIA, Transportation Department and the Postal Service. It also spoke to AT&T, Lumen, NCTA, NTCA and USTelecom. The FCC "is pleased that GAO evaluated the approach being taken by the FCC to develop the broadband serviceable location fabric and accurately identified the challenges we face," emailed a spokesperson.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) launched a consumer survey as part of a state mapping effort to show broadband cost, availability and reliability, the governor’s office said Monday. The state budget directed the Public Service Commission to study broadband and make recommendations by May.

Another prison phone provider asked the California Public Utilities Commission to reconsider its decision to set an interim 7 cents per minute intrastate rate cap for incarcerated persons communications services (IPCS) and eliminate some fees. Securus sought rehearing Wednesday after NCIC Inmate Communications did so Tuesday (see 2109210080). The CPUC decision in docket R.20-10-002 contains “substantial errors of fact and law, lacking any evidence or analysis of providers’ costs to provision IPCS in California, and undermining the Commission’s ability to achieve its goals of ensuring that incarcerated persons have access to IPCS at affordable rates.”