California, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and Washington collected and distributed more than $110 million in 988 fees in 2023 for 988 Lifeline purposes, according to the FCC's latest annual 988 fee accountability report to Congress. The reports are required under the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act. Published in Friday's Daily Digest, the report said collection and distribution of 988 fees will be more prevalent in coming years. Delaware, Minnesota and Oregon reported establishing a funding mechanism but did not collect or impose 988 fees, while Maryland and Vermont recently passed legislation establishing fee-based funding mechanisms to support 988.

Citing "unanticipated and exorbitant inflationary effects of network construction," Cable One is dropping out of the rural deployment opportunity fund program in Idaho, while Fidelity Cablevision is doing the same in Missouri, according to nearly identical docket 20-34 letters Friday. Cable One -- authorized to receive $3,225,684 in RDOF support over 10 years for 863 locations in Idaho -- said it has made "significant investment" in the state, but "the planned RDOF deployment in Idaho is no longer viable due to unforeseeable costs that have increased dramatically since the conclusion of the RDOF auction." Fidelity -- authorized to receive a total of $37,979 in RDOF support over 10 years for 39 locations in Missouri -- used identical language about its planned Missouri deployment. Both said the requested blanket amnesty relief that the FCC declined would have solved those inflationary pressures. In July, the FCC Wireline Bureau said no one had shown a need for widespread relief from RDOF and Connect America Fund Phase II default penalties, and thus it wasn't providing a blanket amnesty.

The California Public Utilities Commission cleared about $41 million in last-mile broadband grants during its livestreamed meeting Thursday. Commissioners voted 5-0 for two draft resolutions comprising the seventh round of awards from the CPUC’s federal funding account. Under one resolution (T-17852), the state will award $18 million to seven projects expected to bring broadband to 2,763 unserved locations in San Luis Obispo County. The awardees were Astound ($6.8 million), Surfnet ($6.4 million) and the city of San Luis Obispo ($4.9 million). Under the second resolution (T-17850), the CPUC will award $23 million total to Comcast ($17 million) and AT&T ($6 million) for projects in Madera and Napa counties, respectively. The CPUC expects the companies to connect 2,843 unserved locations with the funding. CPUC President Alice Reynolds applauded her agency for quickly distributing federal broadband funds. “We're making multi-generational internet infrastructure investments in these communities.” The CPUC delayed votes on proposals regulating VoIP and allowing people without social security numbers to apply for state LifeLine support (see 2410150033). The telecom industry has condemned the VoIP plan and sought more review (see 2410160044 and 2410110040).

Maine will start subsidizing the cost of SpaceX Starlink internet service hardware under its new Working Internet ASAP (WIA) program, the Maine Connectivity Authority said Thursday. The effort targets the 1.5% of rural homes and businesses in Maine that lack internet access. The state agency will coordinate bulk purchases of hardware and service from SpaceX's Starlink, which was chosen through a competitive request for proposals. The agency said the WIA program will come atop $350 million for broadband infrastructure via NTIA's broadband equity access and deployment (BEAD) program to serve the state's locations that have slow and unreliable service. Eligible homes and businesses can apply starting in November for subsidized Starlink hardware.

Windstream promised it would spend $1 million on network reliability and diversity to resolve a Nebraska Public Service Commission investigation into three recent 911 outages that occurred during a five-month period (see 2401230048). Nebraska commissioners voted 5-0 at their Wednesday meeting for an order approving a stipulated agreement between the PSC and Windstream dismissing the matter (docket 911-078). Under a 911 remediation plan, Windstream would upgrade backup power and increase redundancy with an additional third network path for traffic into and out of Nebraska. Moreover, the carrier agreed that a third party should audit and assess network reliability and engineering. The agreement “provides for civil penalties if Windstream does not complete the agreed upon enhancements and improvements by the end of 2025,” Nebraska PSC Chair Dan Watermeier noted. “While we appreciate Windstream’s willingness to work with us, we will continue to monitor the company’s progress to confirm that it is complying with the agreement.” Windstream is “pleased that we were able to amicably resolve this matter,” said Trent Fellers, Windstream vice president-state government affairs for Nebraska. “While we have already taken significant steps to improve our network, Windstream believes the measures outlined in the remediation plan are prudent and will further strengthen our network in the state.” Last week, the Nebraska PSC tentatively scheduled Nov. 4-5 hearings in a separate investigation into a widespread Lumen 911 outage from 2023.

AT&T will receive a refund of $2.26 million for Utah Universal Service Fund (UUSF) overpayments, the Utah Public Service Commission said in an order Wednesday (docket 24-087-02). The PSC approved a settlement between AT&T and the Utah Division of Public Utilities. Under the agreement, AT&T “will implement certain policies and procedures governing its future conduct and the reporting of its monthly number of access lines subject to the UUSF charge,” the PSC said. The carrier will receive its refund in monthly installments starting in February, subject to the company meeting specific obligations, the commission said. For two years, AT&T erroneously assessed a higher UUSF surcharge than the PSC required (see 2407110030 and 2405280028).

Connecticut utility regulators voted 3-0 to deny Verizon deregulation. At a meeting Wednesday, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority approved an order rejecting Verizon’s petition reclassifying its remaining Connecticut services as competitive and retiring the company’s alternative form of regulation plan (see 2410110020 and 2410030043). PURA found that possible harm to the public interest outweighed the presence of competition in Verizon’s Greenwich market. The carrier’s offer of an enforceable commitment to abide by current Connecticut customer termination procedures and certain state reporting requirements failed to alleviate all the authority's concerns, said the final decision. “Such a proposal requires additional consideration during the course of a proceeding, where the Authority can solicit feedback from other stakeholders." In any case, “such a proposal does not address the Authority’s conclusions regarding the number, size, and geographic distribution of certified telecommunications providers offering service in the Service Area nor the inconclusive nature of what barriers to entry do or do not exist in the Service Area,” PURA said. Verizon didn’t comment. Of the authority's four commissioners, Vice Chairman Jack Betkoski didn’t vote because he wasn’t on the three-person panel assigned to docket 24-06-15, a PURA spokesperson said.

Maine’s phone number conservation efforts are paying off, the Public Utilities Commission said Wednesday. A North American numbering plan administrator's (NANPA) semi-annual review of area code exhaustion dates showed that the state's single area code (207) added 2.5 years to its expected lifespan, the Maine PUC said. The area code is expected to reach exhaustion in 2036. “The Commission is very active in a number of conservation efforts, working with companies to ensure they get the telephone numbers they need, while asking other companies to return numbers they don’t need,” said Chair Philip Bartlett. The Maine PUC is working with telcos, the FCC, NANPA and the North American Numbering Council “on strategies to extend the entire numbering system, not just Maine,” added Bartlett. It wasn’t the first extension for the Maine area code’s exhaustion date. Back in January 2001, the code was expected to expire in 2024.

Idaho will get $6.3 million to implement its digital equity plan, NTIA said Wednesday. The funding comes from the $1.44 million state digital equity capacity grant program.

The California Public Utilities Commission didn’t do enough research before proposing that it regulate VoIP services, the New York Law School’s Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute (ACLP) said Tuesday. The telecom industry last week condemned the proposed decision that would say interconnected VoIP providers are telephone corporations subject to the same laws and rules as other wireline and wireless telcos (see 2410110040). In reply comments, companies, including Comcast and Frontier Communications, continued calling for workshops and further review. The CPUC “failed to offer a strong factual basis to justify its expansive proposal for extending common carrier regulation to VOIP services because it did not endeavor to collect data, information, and input via evidentiary hearings and other mechanisms typically deployed by the Commission in similar circumstances,” ACLP said. “Had the Commission gathered more data and information about the downsides of regulating advanced communications services like VOIP as common carriers, it would have been able to identify the negative consumer outcomes that tend to stem from fragmented state-by-state public utility regulation of these offerings, including higher costs and fewer choices for consumers.” The CPUC was scheduled to vote on the item Thursday, but staff postponed it until Nov. 7 (see 2410150033).