Georgia electric cooperatives seeking to provide broadband should develop a cost allocation manual, the Public Service Commission ordered Tuesday. This is under SB-2 enacted last year (see 1904260045).
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) outlined an effort to close the digital divide (see 2004160058) in response to COVID-19. The California Public Utilities Commission will make $25 million from the California Teleconnect Fund available for schools for hot spots and internet service for student households and a previously announced $5 million from the California Advanced Services Fund for devices (see 2004200041), Newsom announced Monday. Amazon, Apple, Verizon, T-Mobile and others committed to provide broadband service and devices for students, he said.
Internet regulation has a good shot after COVID-19, said California Public Utilities Commission officials on a Santa Clara University (SCU) webinar. The virus shows the internet is a “basic utility” that “needs to be regulated,” said Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves. Also at Friday's event, Sen. Scott Wiener (D), author of California’s still-unenforced net neutrality law, rallied supporters to keep fighting despite litigation. Internet access is “going to be regulated,” predicted CPUC Assistant General Counsel Helen Mickiewicz, and “we are at a watershed moment.” Guzman Aceves, former aide to ex-Gov. Jerry Brown (D), said the CPUC is well-positioned. Former Assemblymember Lloyd Levine (D) predicted carriers, with great sway in the legislature, will fight regulation, and he views COVID-19 as “a focusing event” that's a “chance for those of us who care to go to the legislature and push back on the ISPs.” It "could be a while” before California’s net neutrality law applies, Wiener said, answering our question. California agreed not to enforce the 2018 law amid litigation over the FCC repeal order. The lawmaker is glad the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the federal government may not be able to preempt state laws. His law remains on hold at least until early July, the deadline to appeal to the Supreme Court, noted SCU law professor Catherine Sandoval, a former CPUC commissioner. Net neutrality is "not as central in the public focus right now" with the issue tied up in the courts and the pandemic taking attention, "but we have to keep fighting,” said Wiener. "We're in a period where the internet is like a lifeline times 10.” Litigation between industry and the CPUC is probable, said agency attorneys.
California Public Utilities Commissioners will vote May 7 on setting aside up to $5 million in California Advanced Service Fund adoption account support to public schools and school districts in response to the coronavirus, said a draft resolution posted Saturday. The proposal responds to the state Education Department's request in comments this month.
The California Public Utilities Commission plans a broadband workshop Thursday about changes to the California Advanced Services Fund, the agency said last week as it received comments and replies on CASF issues including coronavirus response in docket R.12-10-012. Revamp CASF, the Greenlining Institute commented Wednesday. “The broadband landscape has changed significantly since 2012, and CASF’s goal of universal connectivity is more important than ever.” The California Emerging Technology Fund agreed: “The same sense of urgency needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic should be brought to the ongoing administration of CASF.” CASF "funding should not be awarded in areas where infrastructure already is funded by federal or any other public programs,” the California Cable & Telecommunications Association commented. Target it to “the build out of infrastructure only in areas that remain unserved.” CCTA complained mapping and challenge process sometimes lead to flagging served areas as unserved. Don't stop matching support with “other grants, loans, local government bonds or private contributions for broadband projects,” countered the Rural County Representatives of California. The Utility Reform Network agreed applications should be able to combine state and federal funding. The Central Coast Broadband Consortium local government group said there’s “no blanket prohibition” on combining grant sources, though there’s “properly a prohibition on a grantee receiving payment from one grant source for an eligible expense that has already been paid by another.” The COVID-19 “pandemic has brought to the forefront glaring gaps in digital equity -- broadband availability and affordability and digital literacy,” the state library replied on CASF and the virus. “Augmenting, as we are now, is a powerful stopgap, but it is only part of the long-term solution.” Thursday’s webcast begins at 10 a.m. PDT.
A California task force aims to close the digital divide for students. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond (D) and state Senate Education Committee Chair Connie Leyva (D) will lead the group that will facilitate donations and raise awareness, Thurmond said Thursday. COVID-19 revealed a technology gap for students, he said.
Consumers are “losing the freedom to fix their things,” reported the Open Markets Institute on right-to-repair. Manufacturers “leverage a wide array of legal tactics, predatory designs, and even lawbreaking” to force the public to use in-network repair services instead of independent or do-it-yourself repair, OMI said Monday. “A deadly combination of anemic antitrust enforcement and technological development has allowed manufacturers to purposefully adopt exclusionary practices and cut off the tools necessary for repair.” It urged lawmakers to “ensure that consumers have access to all necessary parts, manuals, and tools, as well as to diagnostic and service software to repair their products.” It wants the FTC to enforce the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act to thwart manufacturers from “illegally limiting or restricting product warranties." The agency organized a “Nixing the Fix” workshop last summer (see 1907160058). It took no action. There has been state legislation.
The Technology Policy Institute is the latest organization in media, technology and telecom to reschedule an event due to COVID-19 (see 2004140019). TPI moved its annual conference from Aug. 16-18 in Aspen, Colorado, across the country to Boar's Head Resort in Charlottesville on Oct. 16-18, we were told this week. It's one of the furthest out on the calendar events to be rescheduled in the TMT sector due to COVID-19. The change is because of "ongoing uncertainty about the feasibility of travel" by August, emailed TPI President Scott Wallsten Tuesday. "The Democratic Convention is now scheduled for that weekend, and we don't want to compete with that." Wallsten said his group's gathering will partly focus on COVID-19. "The theme will be tech policy lessons learned from the pandemic," he said. See more remarks along these lines on a recent podcast and 2004080042. The Democratic National Convention Committee said April 4 it rescheduled the 2020 Democratic National Convention to the week of Aug. 17 in Milwaukee. The DNCC cited "the unprecedented health crisis facing our country," saying this gives "convention planners more time to determine the most appropriate structure." It said "convention planners continue to monitor the unpredictable and unprecedented public health emergency." The DNCC and Democratic National Committee didn't answer our questions now.
Comments are due April 21, replies April 28, on Charter Communications' petition to exclude from Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase 1 auction eligibility any census blocks in New York where Charter Communications will deploy broadband service to satisfy its commitments to the state, said an FCC public notice Tuesday on docket 19-126. Charter was obligated under the terms of a 2016 Time Warner Cable acquisition to upgrade existing broadband networks and expand to additional homes.
California commissioners met behind closed doors without any stakeholders Monday to discuss T-Mobile/Sprint, said a California Public Utilities Commission agenda released Friday. The CPUC didn’t comment. Friday, consumer and union opponents opposed the carriers’ motion to withdraw their wireline application, one of two legal moves that laid the foundation for T-Mobile to close its Sprint buy without CPUC approval. The carriers ignore that a state law prohibiting regulating IP-enabled services lapsed in January (see 1909230048), said the CPUC Public Advocates Office, Communications Workers of America and others in docket A.18-07-011. The companies pledged not to combine California operations until they get OK at Thursday's public meeting (see 2004080029). Even if the CPUC grants withdrawal, T-Mobile promises to honor 50 voluntary commitments, including from a memorandum of understanding with the California Emerging Technology Fund, CETF wrote Monday. The deal will close and any conditions can be renegotiated, especially in light of COVID-19, New Street analyst Blair Levin wrote investors Sunday.