An internet industry group suing Florida for trying to regulate social media warned Texas Thursday not to do the same. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced a special session that began Thursday and will include a bill “safeguarding the freedom of speech by protecting social-media users from being censored by social-media companies based on the user’s expressed viewpoints, including by providing a legal remedy for those wrongfully excluded from a platform.” Lawmakers didn’t vote on Senate-passed SB-12 before the regular session ended (see 2106010052). “Constraining digital services’ ability to take action against harmful content and behavior could put Texans at greater risk of exposure to harms online,” said Computer and Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers. Florida said last week it will appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the decision by the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee to freeze Florida’s law (see 2107010055).
T-Mobile is partnering with driverless car company Halo in Las Vegas, using the carrier’s 5G network. A customer orders the car, which shows up without a driver, for travel to a destination, said the companies Thursday. Halo has operated on the T-Mobile 5G network since it began driving on public Las Vegas roads earlier this year, they said.
Labs processing New York state-collected nasal swab samples for COVID-19 testing must have a New York state clinical laboratory permit, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health emailed Wednesday, responding to our question on the inability of New Yorkers to order Amazon’s test kit (see Notebook, July 7 issue of this publication). A notification, in red lettering, next to the test kit at Amazon.com says “cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location” for customers identified as living in New York. The department spokesperson said that “the lab associated with this kit does not currently have a permit issued by the Department of Health. Other at-home collection kits are permitted and available.” Amazon is working to make its consumer COVID-19 at-home test collection kit available for purchase in New York as soon as possible, we’re told. It announced general availability Tuesday. Customers get results within 24 hours of the sample’s arrival at a lab in Hebron, Kentucky. Amazon didn’t respond to a question asking about other states.
The FCC could consider pausing future increases to minimum service standards for mobile broadband capacity to seek comment because the current formula continues to “yield increasingly high results” as data consumption increases and the availability of unlimited data plans grows, said the Wireline Bureau’s Lifeline marketplace report listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The bureau said the commission could also revise the current formula for calculating increases since the majority of Lifeline subscribers are mobile wireless subscribers and 93% of subscribers use less than 4 GB monthly, and 75% less than 1 GB. The bureau will release a public notice by July 31 on the updated standard levels effective Dec. 1, as required by the 2016 Lifeline order. The bureau suggested the commission could consider modifying its phase-down in support for voice-only services due to concerns about subscribers who may want just voice-only Lifeline plans. The report suggested requiring Lifeline providers provide information about the data, speed and minutes of use associated with its Lifeline plans to better measure availability.
Transportation and vehicle technology companies showing automotive, drones and self-driving technology will be among the exhibitors in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s newly opened West Hall at CES 2022, a CTA spokesperson emailed Wednesday. The Central and West halls “are filling up fast,” she said, after the announcement CES added space tech and food tech categories for the January show (see 2106300063). Space tech will have its own section in the North Hall, and food tech is slated to be part of the lifestyle section, she said. Some 1,000 companies have committed to exhibiting in Las Vegas, covering 1.56 million net square feet, she said. A June 8 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the West Hall was followed by the opening of World of Concrete, the first major show to return to Las Vegas post-pandemic. The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop, an underground tunnel developed by Elon Musk's The Boring Co. and designed to shuttle convention attendees throughout the 200-acre campus in electric Tesla vehicles, also became fully operational, said the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. An open-air atrium, with a 10,000-square-foot digital screen developed by Samsung, is said to be the largest digital experience in a U.S. convention center in the U.S.
The FCC, NTIA and the Department of Agriculture’s plan to coordinate federal broadband deployment funds (see 2106250056) should increase efficiency and produce the “biggest bang for the buck” in communities with little or no broadband, said NARUC broadband task force member Talina Mathews Tuesday. The state broadband group recommended more coordination (see 2106250048), noted the Kentucky Public Service commissioner in a livestreamed panel at the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (MACRUC) meeting in Farmington, Pennsylvania. “The haves and have-nots really came to light when we had to go virtual,” with some children forced to sit in McDonald’s parking lots to get Wi-Fi for homework, Mathews said. COVID-19 put an “intense spotlight” on underserved areas, said Virginia State Corporation Commission Judge Judy Jagdmann on a later, partially virtual MACRUC panel. Electric utilities are constructing broadband middle mile facilities in their states after laws passed to ease limits, said Jagdmann and West Virginia PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane. West Virginia’s commission cleared a $61.3 million, 400-mile middle-mile broadband project by Appalachian Power June 16 that could serve 15,000 unserved customers, said utility Vice President-External Affairs Brad Hall. Though an energy users group sought reconsideration Monday of parts of the PSC’s OK in case 21-0032-E-IMM, the energy company hopes to begin 24-month construction by year-end, Hall said. The users group said it challenges “limited questions of cost recovery,” not PSC approval of the plan or proposed project. Lane said she couldn't talk about the pending reconsideration.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a high-speed internet bill Sunday allowing $10 million from federal COVID-19 relief funds to be used for telehealth grants and $5 million for broadband grants for low-income households or “critically unserved” areas with less than 10/1 Mbps. Funds in critically unserved areas are for satellite providers only, said the bill (SB-60).
Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed a bill to pursue universal broadband by establishing the Maine Connectivity Authority, her office said Friday. Mills promised at an April hearing on LD-1484 that the agency won’t overreach (see 2104270066).
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) is seeking ISP comment on $300 million tagged for increasing state connectivity, his office said Thursday. Responses due July 12 on the request for information will shape questions and conditions in an upcoming request for proposals.
Frontier Communications promised to stop advertising higher speeds than it delivers in Ohio, Attorney General Dave Yost (R) said Thursday. The ISP agreed to upgrade internet infrastructure and stop overbilling for unreliable service, the AG office said. The carrier agreed to spend $15 million to “provide or enhance internet services” over four years, said the agreement emailed to us by the AG office. That’s on top of $25 million yearly 2021-23 Frontier agreed to spend in an August 2020 settlement with the Public Utilities Commission (see 2008120056), it said. The pact resolves an Ohio AG probe into Frontier sales and ad practices. The carrier didn’t comment.