A Monday news release from PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that Equifax will pay $600 million ($425 million into a Consumer Restitution Fund and $175 million to the states) for its 2017 data breach which affected 147 million customers across the country. Fifty Attorneys General filed a multi-state investigation into the breach and Pennsylvania […]

Telemarketing in the news again this week in the form of an advisory from the PUC urging consumers to be aware of sales calls from competitive energy suppliers and reminding Pennsylvanians that they do not have to choose a competitive provider for their electricity or natural gas supplier. In addition, the PUC missive says that […]

As if they weren’t walking on eggshells already, tech giants probably weren’t overly thrilled with President Trump’s comments during this week’s interview on Fox Business suggesting that Google and Facebook should be sued by the federal government. A Washington Post article on the matter also highlighted recent antitrust activity in the nation’s capital in which […]

Representative Pam Snyder’s House Bill 305 was reported from the House Appropriations Committee and ultimately passed unanimously by the full House yesterday. The bill provides for an inventory of state- and county-owned assets for the provision of mobile broadband service.

Pennsylvania was not included, but attorneys general from ten states have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the Sprint T-Mobile merger on the grounds that it will stifle competition in the wireless market and consequently cause increased prices and negatively impact service quality. New York and California are leading the charge.

It was all about rural broadband in the state capital this week, starting with Monday’s unveiling of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania study on BB availability throughout the Commonwealth. The report was highly critical of the FCC’s attempts to accurately map where BB has been deployed with study author Sascha Meinrath saying that “there are […]

The House Consumer Affairs Committee will continue its impressive level of activity in the 2019-20 session with next Tuesday’s committee meeting addressing four bills including: House Bill 1511 which establishes a 60-day shot clock on the PUC when considering uncontested telco mergers, and House Resolution 250 which urges Congress to grant the FCC additional authority […]

Mostly good news this week for wanna-be partners T-Mobile and Sprint whose merger application was approved in a 3-2 vote at the PA PUC, but may be facing additional scrutiny at the U.S. Department of Justice. The majority PUC vote was in support of a Motion from Commissioner Andrew Place which noted the “affirmative public […]

With the start of the new fiscal year on the horizon, several budget bills of interest to the regulated telco industry are poised for consideration. House Bill 1374 contains the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s FY 2019-20 appropriation of $75,533,000, House Bill 1370 sets funding at $6,025,000 for the Office of Consumer Advocate and House Bill […]