Nebraska lawmakers voted 47-0 Tuesday for a broadband infrastructure bill. LB-992 would ease deployment on existing electric easements. It would require the Nebraska Public Service Commission to establish an E-rate special construction matching fund program to support fiber installation at libraries with state USF. Profits from leasing excess capacity on dark fiber that currently go to an internet enhancement fund would go instead to state USF, with the former fund to be terminated June 30. The bill would also create a state broadband coordinator and four regional technicians to support libraries with internet and computer access. The bill goes next to Gov. Pete Ricketts (R), who didn’t comment Wednesday.
A New Jersey Assembly panel cleared a bill to study municipal broadband. A-850 would create a commission to report to the governor on feasibility of community broadband networks. The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee amended the bill Monday to adjust the group’s composition. The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, which would get a seat on the commission, supported the bill in a Friday letter to the committee shared with us Monday. “Broadband service can no longer be considered a luxury service,” wrote Director Stefanie Brand. The bill goes next to the Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D), the committee said.
An appeals court set Oct. 13 oral argument on a National Lifeline Association lawsuit against the FCC about Lifeline non-usage rules (see 2006110023). The hearing starts at 9:30 a.m., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said (in Pacer) in docket 20-1006.
ACA Connects said Vermont is waiting to enforce its net neutrality law limiting state contracts with ISPs. Enforcement could have started Wednesday under terms of a previous hold (see 2008030043). Vermont, ACA Connects and other ISP association plaintiffs Tuesday “entered into a stipulation agreeing to stay enforcement ... pending further discussions between the associations and the State,” an ACA Connects spokesperson emailed Thursday. ACA Connects didn't share the agreement, which also hadn’t appeared in the U.S. District Court of Vermont docket for case No. 2:18-cv-167 (in Pacer) by Thursday afternoon. DOJ and ISPs renewed their lawsuits against California’s open-internet law Wednesday by filing motions for preliminary injunction (see 2008050060). ISP groups hope Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan (D) will agree to continue to stay enforcement “until the California preliminary injunction motion is decided,” the ACA representative emailed. The AG office didn’t comment.
DOJ urged a federal court to stop California from enforcing its net neutrality law to “avoid ongoing, irreparable harm to the United States and its interests.” DOJ filed an amended complaint and motion (both in Pacer) for preliminary injunction Wednesday in resumed litigation at the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of California (see 2008030043). The department argued the state law is preempted under the Constitution’s supremacy clause and fails a conflict preemption test. “California has imposed stringent regulation on interstate broadband communications in a way that directly contradicts" the FCC's "validly adopted regulatory scheme" and the Communications Act principle “that the Federal Government -- not individual States -- has exclusive regulatory authority over interstate communications," it said in case 2:18-cv-02660. California is trying to overwrite FCC policy for the nation, the department argued. ISPs “cannot apply two separate and conflicting legal frameworks to Internet communications -- one for California and one for everywhere else. This impossibility means that California’s rules effectively are the only ones that matter.” ISP associations that sued California over the same law filed their own motion and amended complaint (in Pacer) Wednesday. The California law "is preempted under principles of field, express, and conflict preemption," said ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom, saying their members "would be irreparably harmed if subjected to that unconstitutional law during the pendency of this litigation." A California Justice Department spokesperson said, "We are reviewing the complaint and look forward to defending California’s state net neutrality protections."
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday evening that makes permanent for rural communities an expansion of Medicare recipients’ eligibility to receive 135 types of services via telehealth. The EO rolled back permanently for rural Medicare recipients some restrictions on eligibility enacted in March as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and other laws (see 2003250046). Congressional Telehealth Caucus co-Chair Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and four other caucus members filed the Protecting Access to Post-Covid-19 Telehealth Act last month to make this permanent (see 2007160077). White House officials told reporters the EO is intended to signal Trump wants Congress to expand all Medicare recipients’ eligibility for telehealth. “I’m taking action to ensure telehealth is here to stay,” Trump said during a news conference. American Telemedicine Association CEO Ann Mond Johnson Tuesday said the EO will “ensure individuals receive the care they need during." There's “more work that needs to be done, on both the Federal and state levels, to cement these gains and make permanent the waivers,” Johnson said in a statement. “We have an unprecedented opportunity to modernize our healthcare system.” Connected Health Initiative Executive Director Morgan Reed wants "legislation to ensure that the Medicare patients will have access to digital health services regardless of where they live or where they happen to be when they conduct a virtual visit."
The California Assembly Communications Committee voted 9-3 for increasing the state broadband standard to 25 Mbps up and down. The committee voted 9-2 to clear SB-431 requiring 72 hours backup power like the California Public Utilities Commission required last month (see 2007160065). At a Monday hearing livestreamed from Sacramento, Vice Chair Jay Obernolte raised concerns that SB-1130 would require a “massive additional source of revenue.” The Republican also opposed “putting our thumb on the scale” in favor of fiber and questioned the need for symmetrical speeds because he claimed most consumers need fast downloads only. Sponsor Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) said the bill would also support hybrid-technology networks, so cable companies could meet the standards. Cable providers claimed no existing provider in California could meet 25/25. Charter offers 940/35 Mbps speeds but its “entire service territory would be considered unserved because we do not offer a service tier package of 25/25,” said Senior Director-Government Affairs West Kara Bush. Gonzalez aide George Soares told us later that statement was false because the bill doesn’t require speeds to be symmetrical, just that each the download and upload components are higher than 25 Mbps. Charter doesn't "believe the language is clear," a spokesperson responded. The CPUC has 52 pending California Advanced Services Fund applications, meaning there won’t be any money left to fund SB-1130, said California Cable and Telecommunication Association President Carolyn McIntyre. She and Bush warned that open-access rules would violate federal law. There was confusion over what speeds the bill actually required when sponsor Gonzalez misstated that her bill defines a served area as having 25/3 Mbps. She later corrected that the bill was changed last week to 25 symmetrical (see 2007280043). Wireless providers are addressing resiliency without rules proposed by SB-431 on backup power and have valid concerns that rules will get in the way, said Assemblymember Jim Patterson (R). Sen. Mike McGuire (D) said the sponsors accommodated industry in several ways, including by making a network-wide requirement rather than applying rules to all cell sites. Industry didn’t get everything it wants but saw “significant movement toward them,” said Chair Miguel Santiago (D). The bills go next to the Appropriations Committee.
More than half the canceled Las Vegas conventions “have rebooked for future dates,” MGM Resort CEO Bill Hornbuckle said on a Q2 call Thursday. Those selling products, “whether it's CES or corporate America that comes here,” know they need to “get in front of people," he said. “If you think about the tech companies we host” at Mandalay Bay, the “vast majority” are into “selling something,” and “you've got to do that one-on-one,” he said. That’s why “they're anxious to return,” he said. That venue is where CES customarily holds its media day news conferences; the entire conference was canceled last week (see 2007280034). All MGM properties in Las Vegas are open except for the Mirage, Park MGM and NoMad, said Hornbuckle. COVID-19 "headlines" in Las Vegas “continue to have a meaningful impact on booking trends and cancellations,” he said. “Our visibility is limited to booking windows that are currently less than a week.”
Litigation over California’s net neutrality law will resume in early August. Judge John Mendez approved (in Pacer) a proposed schedule submitted by the parties Thursday in U.S. District Court for Eastern California. The state agreed in October 2018 not to enforce SB-822 while the Mozilla appeal of the FCC’s order rescinding the 2015 national rules was pending (see 1810260045). The lawsuits by DOJ and ISPs may move forward now that Mozilla and others let pass a July 6 deadline to appeal to the Supreme Court (see 2007070012). The government and the ISP group would file amended complaints and renewed motions for preliminary injunction by Aug. 5, under the stipulation (in Pacer) jointly agreed to by plaintiffs DOJ and CTIA, NCTA, USTelecom and ACA Connects. The parties know "a number of non-parties" plan to join as amici.
Verizon launched new LTE Home Internet service in Savannah; Springfield, Missouri; and the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. It's adding the offering to customers “outside the Fios and 5G Home footprints, expanding home connectivity options to rural areas,” the carrier said Thursday: “They’ll get unlimited data, and experience download speeds of 25 Mbps with peak Internet speeds of 50 Mbps.”