Adam Bender

Pennsylvania state senators confirmed nominee Kimberly Barrow to the Public Utility Commission. The Senate voted 47-0 Wednesday after the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee unanimously cleared Barrow earlier that day at a livestreamed meeting. Barrow has been chief of staff for Pennsylvania PUC Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille since 2013 and worked at the PUC for 22 years total. Dutrieuille’s term expired April 1, but Pennsylvania commissioners may continue an additional six months or until a replacement is confirmed. When Dutrieuille exits, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) will choose which commissioner will be chair. "My focus really will be on consumers,” with affordability and reliability as top issues, Barrow told the Senate committee. Shapiro’s nominee said she seeks to find “balance” between consumers and utilities. Saying he looked forward to balanced decisions, Committee Chair Patrick Stefano (R) asked Barrow how she would handle possibly being a deciding vote on a commission with two Democrats and two Republicans. Most PUC decisions are 5-0, and that’s worth continuing, replied Barrow. Barrow will fill Dutrieuille’s “big shoes,” said Minority Chair Lisa Boscola, a Democrat: "It will be great to work with a full commission." Dutrieuille testified that Barrow “will make an excellent commissioner.”

Nebraska will comprehensively reassess state USF rules, commissioners agreed at a Nebraska Public Service Commission meeting Tuesday. The all-Republican commission voted 5-0 to consider changes to the Nebraska USF (NUSF) high-cost distribution mechanism and associated reporting requirements (docket NUSF-139). The commission will seek feedback this fall.

Florida and the communications industry are preparing for Idalia, a tropical storm that's expected to develop into a major hurricane before it makes landfall on the Gulf Coast in days. “It will become a hurricane ... without question,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) at a Monday news conference in Largo, Florida. “Buckle up for this one.”

LTD Broadband said there’s no urgent need for the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to resume proceedings on revoking LTD Broadband’s eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation. The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winner disagreed with state industry groups and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) in reply comments filed Monday in docket 22-221. "The contention of these parties that LTD’s FCC application could suddenly spring to life and result in LTD obtaining immediate authorization for [RDOF] support, thereby barring others from seeking alternative funding for broadband deployment, has no basis in fact," the ISP said.

A bill that would restrict California regulators’ discretion to make extra rules for NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program dismayed local and consumer advocates. With a month left in session, California legislators are also weighing broadband bills to require wireless eligibility for federal funding and to streamline broadband permitting. Assembly Communications Committee Chair Tasha Boerner (D) said the goal of her BEAD bill (AB-662) is to bring “accountability” to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Don’t let Lumen’s CenturyLink relitigate a Washington state probe of a 911 outage that led to a nearly $1.32 million fine against the carrier, said Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission staff and the state attorney general office’s public counsel in comments Monday. Staff took no position on public counsel seeking about 10 times the penalties ordered. CenturyLink opposed increasing fines, arguing the company should face no penalty.

LTD Broadband still hasn’t shown it can serve rural Minnesota, said state Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), industry and public interest groups in comments at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. They urged the PUC to lift a stay on a proceeding to consider revoking the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winner’s expanded eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation -- and to suspend the certificate while docket 22-221 remains open. Inaction could stop areas from receiving support from NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, said the commenters.

Companies have questions about a Maine plan to combine Consolidated Communications rate centers statewide. The Maine Public Utilities Commission received comments last week in an investigation (docket 2023-00009) of the feasibility of large-scale rate center consolidation in the 207 area code so as to more efficiently distribute phone numbers. Consolidated explained in a July 7 filing how it might combine all its Maine rate centers into one, which the company acknowledged hasn’t been done before. More study is needed, the Telecommunications Association of Maine (TAM) commented Friday. TAM fears a large scale rate center consolidation could affect its 14 RLEC members' toll and local service plans and rate structures, possibly confusing customers and increasing RLECs' costs and rates. Rate center consolidation might be a good idea, but more information is needed, said Charter Communications. The PUC should hold more workshops to better vet the plan, said Comcast. “Consolidated’s proposal is an industry-impacting event in Maine." The proposal raises many questions and concerns, said GoNetSpeed. “The plan has the potential to significantly impact all voice service providers, particularly the small, legacy ILEC companies who have existing contractual agreements with Consolidated to exchange network traffic." It "would need to be undertaken carefully," but rate center consolidation may be "a viable approach to help Maine extend the life of the single 207 area code,” said CTIA. But it's too soon to say what implementation timeline is reasonable, it said. The PUC should assess financial and public safety impacts and consider whether LECs besides Consolidated would also merge rate centers, said CTIA: The commission “should ensure that any plan considers and mitigates any unintended consequences that would result from having one consolidated LEC and other LECs that have not made the same changes to their operations.” Maine’s public advocate said it “would like to see a qualitative and quantitative description … of the operational efficiencies and long-term operational cost savings that Consolidated anticipates, and how it plans to recover the costs for the work it intends to do.”

DENVER -- More companies will likely join Nokia onshoring equipment for high-speed internet infrastructure, broadband officials predicted Wednesday at Mountain Connect here. In an interview, Fiber Broadband Association CEO Gary Bolton said NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program is the best internet infrastructure program he has ever seen, though challenges ahead include workforce shortages and possible permitting delays.

DENVER -- The state with the biggest allocation from NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) will probably need more money to connect everyone, a Texas broadband official said on a Wednesday panel at Mountain Connect here. Other states also said they don’t have enough money to connect everyone, though some said alternative technologies like fixed wireless could be used.