AT&T filed a motion July 31 to discontinue service in Alaskan communities, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska said in a public notice Monday. The application indicates the proposed discontinuance would affect 500 residential and 1,400 business customers and cover 42 townships on Alaska's west coast. AT&T filed a motion for expedited consideration, seeking approval by Nov. 30. Comments are due Sept. 4.

NTIA gave Arizona approval to collect $993 million in broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) funds Monday. The federal agency approved volume 2 of the state’s initial proposal. NTIA has approved entire initial plans for 28 states plus three territories and the District of Columbia. The agency approved five plans last week and expects to review most by next month (see 2408010053).

Charter Communications and Hawaiian Telcom joined a $4 billion settlement with Hawaii to resolve lawsuits related to last year’s Maui wildfires, Gov. Josh Green (D) said Friday. Under proposed terms of the agreement, which “remains subject to final documentation and court approval,” the telecom companies and five other defendants will compensate about 2,200 parties who filed lawsuits, the governor’s office said. The agreement is the result of four months of mediation. Green said his goal “was to expedite the agreement and to avoid protracted and painful lawsuits so as many resources as possible would go to those affected by the wildfires as quickly as possible.” Charter declined to comment Monday. Hawaiian Telcom didn’t comment.

NTIA gave Missouri and Tennessee the go-ahead to collect a combined $2.5 billion in broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) funds Friday. The federal agency approved volume 2 of each state’s initial plan. NTIA allocated about $1.7 billion to Missouri and $813 million to Tennessee. NTIA has approved entire initial plans for 27 states plus three territories and the District of Columbia. The agency approved five plans last week and expects to review most by next month (see 2408010053). Meanwhile, Kentucky opened a portal to apply for broadband grants from the state’s $1.1 billion BEAD allocation, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said Friday. Potential applicants can register now. A prequalification phase will run Aug. 14 to Sept. 13, in which the state will collect managerial, technical and operational information. Kentucky expects to start accepting applications in November, Beshear's office said.

New York state on Thursday started the process to implement two kids’ online safety laws. Attorney General Letitia James (D) released an Advanced NPRM for each. The bills are the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (Safe) for Kids Act and the Child Data Protection Act. While not part of the formal rulemaking process under the state’s administrative procedures act, the ANPRMs let the state seek information before proposing rules, the AG office said. Comments are due Sept. 30. “New Yorkers are looking to this office to protect children on social media apps and online, and the rules we are drafting will do precisely that,” James said. “By offering everyone, supporters and opponents of the recently signed legislation, the opportunity to submit comments and information, my office will ensure that we can better address concerns and priorities.” The Safe Act requires obtaining parental consent when using algorithms to sort feeds for minors, while the kids’ privacy bill bans websites from collecting and sharing minors’ personal data without informed consent. In the Safe Act ANPRM, the AG office asked about how it should identify commercially reasonable and technically feasible age-verification methods, how it should implement a parental consent mechanism and how to determine whether a social media platform is addictive. In the kids’ privacy bill ANPRM, the AG office asked about what factors are relevant to determining that a website is primarily directed at minors, young teenagers and older teens. Among many other questions, the office asked if there should be any exceptions to the definition of a data “sale” and how rules should account for “anonymized or deidentified data that could potentially still be re-linked to a specific individual.” Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) applauded the process to implement the bills she signed in June (see 2406200069). Citing the U.S. Senate's passage of two children’s internet safety bills Tuesday (see 2407300042), Hochul said, “Our efforts in New York are accelerating a national conversation on youth mental health and social media.”

Total Florida landlines stand at 764,000, a 17.7% decline from 2022 as consumers and businesses chose wireless and VoIP, the Florida Public Service Commission said Thursday in a telecom competition report. The total dipped below 1 million in 2022 (see 2308010054). Business landlines exceeded residential ones for the 13th straight year, though business lines still sank 15% while residential lines decreased by 21.8%. AT&T saw a 27.2% decline in residential lines during 2023, while the decrease was 25.6% at Frontier Communications and 19.9% at Lumen’s CenturyLink.

Electric pole owners raised labor shortage and other concerns with Kentucky Public Service Commission changes to state pole attachment rules that are meant to spur broadband. The PSC received comments Wednesday on emergency amendments that the agency filed May 31 with the Legislative Research Commission. The PSC previously received comments May 21 on a draft in docket 2023-00416 (see 2405220040). The PSC's "use of inflexible timeframes for make-ready requirements -- rather than continuing to rely on commonsense good cause provisions -- will only compound the problems posed by [a] national worker shortage,” a group of electric cooperatives warned. Someday, the current "trickle of applications will likely be replaced by a deluge that will stretch the Cooperatives’ staff and resources, frustrating pole owners and attachers alike,” they added. Duke Energy questioned the PSC’s plan that would allow an attacher with multiple applications to choose the order a utility should review them. Prioritizing a new application would reset the review period of an older application currently under review, under the change. But Duke said "the need to track priorities and reset timelines of individual applications will create confusion, inefficiencies, and an unreasonable administrative burden for the utility.” The electric co-ops also raised concerns about that change. “Giving attachers the ability to reprioritize their applications at their discretion -- which can just as easily be done internally by attachers before submitting applications to pole owners -- only complicates the challenge of obtaining the right number of contractors at the right times.” In addition, the PSC rules lack "adequate enforcement of timely payment,” the co-ops said. “The staggering amount of outstanding payments due to pole owners from broadband providers looms over this entire proceeding.”

“When it comes to communicating outages, social media can and should be a public utility or cable TV provider’s best friend,” a West Virginia Public Service Commission task force said Wednesday. The group reported on outage notification best practices in response to a PSC request (see 2405220049). "In the past, best practices in outage communication may have centered around emails, phone calls, and even press releases,” the report said. “Today, however, customers expect more immediate updates via text alerts, real-time outage maps, and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (X).” Social networks are now “an absolute must-have” as they “allow for the provision of quick updates regarding the status of outage situations so customers are not left searching for relevant information.”

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission will weigh whether it should mirror the FCC’s December changes to federal pole attachment rules. Pennsylvania reverse preempted FCC authority in March 2020 (see 2003190032). Under state rules, Pennsylvania will adopt any FCC changes 60 days after the federal amendments become effective -- unless the PUC publishes a notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin saying the changes may not take effect. The Pennsylvania PUC said this week that it “hereby provides notice to the public that the Federal Rule Changes may not take effect in Pennsylvania, and hereby solicits public comment on the Federal Rule Changes.” Don’t “rehash or reargue” FCC determinations, warned the PUC in docket L-2018-3002672. “This process should be utilized to focus on the Pennsylvania-specific impacts of such changes.” Comments will be due 15 days after the notice is published in the Bulletin, it said. Expect publication of the notice in mid-August, a PUC spokesperson said Wednesday.

Alaska telecom industry groups urged state regulators to slow the pace of an already delayed proceeding to craft phone deregulation rules. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska had initially required comments by May in a renewed effort to implement SB-83, Alaska's 2019 telecom deregulation law (see [Ref:2404100058). However, because Alaska lawmakers approved a bill (HB-307) earlier that month clarifying the RCA’s telecom powers, it extended the comments deadline until July 29. However, the legislature only transmitted the bill to Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) July 16, and he hasn’t signed it. On July 22, the Alaska Telecom Association (ATA) sought another extension at the RCA, but an agency spokesperson said Monday that it wasn’t granted. If HB-307 becomes law, the RCA’s proposed rules “may no longer be appropriate or applicable,” ATA wrote last week. The group suggested that the RCA provide 90 more days, until Oct. 28, to file comments so that parties can “provide thorough, constructive comments -- particularly comments that include proposed alternative regulation amendments in light of any statutory changes.” The Matanuska Telecom Association said Monday that the RCA “should not, and cannot, adopt the regulations noticed on April 12, 2024.” MTA agreed with ATA that the proceeding should be extended, saying that stakeholders “cannot adequately prepare useful, substantive comments, or alternative regulations proposals … while HB 307 awaits action before the Governor,” it said. Dunleavy has until Aug. 8 to sign or veto HB-307, the governor’s spokesperson said Tuesday. The bill would also become law if the governor didn’t sign it by that date. ATA Executive Director Christine O’Connor thinks the matter ultimately “will work out fine,” with another opportunity to weigh in likely to come, she said Tuesday. “The RCA still needs to issue draft regulations” for implementing SB-83 and HB-307, which would trigger another round of comments, she said.