Broadcasters and internet and advertising groups slammed a proposed digital ad levy in a Connecticut tax overhaul bill (HB-5673), in written testimony Monday. “The proposed tax on digital advertising would represent one of the most serious threats to commercial advertising in the United States in several decades,” said a coalition including NAB, NCTA, NetChoice, TechNet, Internet Coalition, Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and Association of National Advertisers.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
A Montana state senator on Friday urged colleagues not to significantly change his comprehensive privacy bill. SB-384 is based on Connecticut’s law and balances consumer protections with industry “functionality,” Sen. Daniel Zolnikov (R) told the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee at a livestreamed hearing. Industry and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) supported Zolnikov's bill at the hearing, but Vice Chair Willis Curdy (D) noted a fast-approaching March 3 deadline to transmit bills to the opposite chamber.
Industry groups urged Maryland legislators to remove a private right of action (PRA) from a comprehensive privacy bill. The Maryland House Economic Matters Committee considered two privacy bills by Del. Sara Love (D) at a livestreamed hearing Wednesday. Industry urged Maryland to follow Connecticut’s approach, but the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said to instead base the bill on a proposal by Congress. Internet groups slammed a separate bill to regulate social media platforms for children.
Nebraska should lift state restrictions keeping public power utilities from leasing their dark fiber to ISPs in rural areas, said Sen. Tom Brandt (R) at a livestreamed hearing Tuesday. However, telecom industry groups raised concerns at the unicameral legislature’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee’s hearing on Brandt’s LB-61. Utilities don’t want to get in the commercial internet business, said Brandt, noting other states have eased similar limits. Nebraska's "dark fiber statutes are antiquated and need to be repealed,” said Brian Adams, Omaha Public Power District chief of staff. The existing law discourages utilities from partnering with others to provide high-speed internet, he said. Other supporters included Allo Communications, Nebraska Farm Bureau, Nebraska Farmers Union, League of Nebraska Municipalities and Nebraska Association of County Officials. Utilities won’t use energy rates to pay for broadband, he stressed. Raising concerns the bill might incentivize overbuilding, Sen. Wendy DeBoer (D) asked if the state’s current limits should remain for served areas. Nebraska Telecommunications Association President Tip O’Neill opposed LB-61, saying it would remove key protections for transparency and fair competition. State law needn’t be changed, he said. Answering a question from DeBoer, O’Neill said limiting the bill to unserved areas might be preferable, but he would have to talk with association members including Lumen and Great Plains Communications. The bill would “undercut competition” by subsidizing broadband overbuilders, preventing ISP challenges and eliminating oversight, said Charter Communications Senior Manager-Government Affairs Dayton Murty. Sen. Bruce Bostelman (R) disagreed with overbuilding concerns. ISPs failed to serve rural Nebraska, he said. “We need to look at any way that can help.”
A Kansas bill to exempt satellite TV and streaming video services from the state’s video franchise law cleared the Senate Utilities Committee in a voice vote Thursday. SB-144 would clarify that municipalities can’t apply a 5% franchise fee to the services that lack facilities in the right of way. “This is a clarification bill” that's meant to “maintain the status quo,” said DirecTV and Dish Network counsel Damon Stewart of Orrick Herrington. It responds to a number of cities that are "creatively interpreting” the 20-year-old Kansas statute in lawsuits against Hulu and Netflix in an attempt to get them to pay ROW fees, he said. Similar bills passed by overwhelming margins in Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio and Arizona, Stewart added. Ranking minority member Marci Francisco (D) raised concerns the committee didn’t give a “fair hearing” to written opposition she received only when the meeting started. We couldn’t find the testimony online and the committee didn’t respond to our request for copies by our deadline. A Missouri Senate panel cleared a similar bill Tuesday (see 2302150049).
Washington state should develop its own broadband map, said the state broadband office’s director, Mark Vasconi, at a hearing livestreamed Wednesday. The state’s Senate Environment, Energy and Technology Committee heard testimony but didn’t vote on SB-5718. Vasconi said he was neutral on the bill, which would require his office to develop and maintain a broadband map showing serviceable locations and service capabilities by July 1, 2024. The bill also would require the office to update the map at least twice a year. “We need more precise data” than FCC maps show, but the proposed due date is a “lofty aspiration,” commented Vasconi. Pressed by Sen. Shelly Short (R) if that should be delayed, Vasconi said “more time is always better than less.” The office can do it by July 1, 2024, but it would need to hire more people, he said. The House Innovation Committee advanced that chamber’s version (HB-1746) Tuesday.
The NARUC board passed telecom resolutions Wednesday on the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and extending FCC spectrum auction authority. The RDOF resolution recommends a referral to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, but that body’s state members told us at NARUC’s meeting this week the joint board hasn’t met in several years. The FCC’s continuing lack of five commissioners could be a big reason, they said.
Commissioner Chris Nelson isn’t convinced eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation is no longer necessary, the South Dakota Republican said at NARUC’s winter conference Tuesday. Telecom association officials on Nelson’s panel said Congress sees that the ETC process has run its course. Nelson and a District of Columbia consumer advocate raised concerns about possible impacts to service quality as telcos abandon state-regulated copper networks.
States face a time crunch preparing to spend billions of federal dollars on broadband, said state and federal panelists at NARUC’s winter conference Monday. A possible change in broadband responsibilities is causing uncertainty in Nebraska about who will administer funds from NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program.
The NARUC Telecom Committee unanimously agreed Monday to proposed resolutions on the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and extending FCC spectrum authority. It’s critical to keep RDOF awards in the location that won them even if the FCC rejected the winning bidder, said Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Chair Gladys Brown Dutrieuille in an interview Sunday. The draft resolutions, passed at the state utility regulator association’s winter meeting, need NARUC board approval.