Rural Wireless Association General Counsel Carri Bennet raised concerns (see 1911080017) about a proposed national security order (see 1910300036) to ban equipment from Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE from networks funded by the USF, meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. “RWA members would like to understand whether maintenance or support would expand to areas not related to payments to Huawei and ZTE,” she said in docket 18-89, posted Wednesday.
The FCC Wireline Bureau issued guidance Tuesday for funding recipients in USF competitive bidding on how to notify the bureau of discrepancies between the number of funded locations and locations a provider can serve with broadband (see 1809100042). An order in docket 10-90 establishes a one-time eligible locations adjustment process (ELAP). A Connect America Fund-II participant officer must certify under penalty of perjury the provider did due diligence. Eligible stakeholders have 90 days from release of the new data to file a challenge; responses will be due 30 days after that. The bureau will work with Universal Service Administrative Co. on a process to accept and retain ELAP location submissions and control access to the information for confidentiality and privacy purposes, and the bureau will work with USAC on an ELAP map.
USTelecom and members want the FCC-proposed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to "invest today in terrestrial broadband to provide a future of rural connectivity," wired and wireless, they said in meetings with the Office of Economics and Analytics and Wireline Bureau Thursday and posted Friday in docket 19-126. They request "clearly defined roles and responsibilities" as USF high-cost programs transition to RDOF (see 1909230013). The telecom industry wants the FCC to use lessons learned from the Connect America Fund phase II auction "to ensure reasonable accountability while ensuring the program is not bogged down with unnecessary requirements," saying RDOF should reduce the risk of inaccurate location data. AT&T, Consolidated, CenturyLink, Frontier, Verizon and Windstream also sent representatives.
Concerns mounted Friday about a draft order to bar companies that may pose a national security threat to U.S. interests from having USF money paying for their equipment when used in American telecom networks. Wireless and wireline interests sought changes. Huawei, which could be subject to the ban, retorted. And a professor whose report was cited in the draft expressed some surprise at that inclusion, while defending his report from the company's criticism.
The FCC Wireline Bureau granted petitions to Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative and Consolidated Communications Networks to waive a commitment to serve a specific number of locations under rural broadband experiments in the USF Connect America Fund program, in an order posted to docket 10-90 Thursday. "Petitioners demonstrate that the required number of locations exceeds the actual number of locations that the petitioners have been able to identify within their respective study areas," the bureau said. The agency will direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to reduce payments accordingly.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., wrote President Donald Trump Wednesday about Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers' “ongoing refusal to pay lawfully owed licensing fees to U.S. developers of standards-based wireless technology.” Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, neither of which is identified in the letter, are under FCC and Capitol Hill scrutiny (see 1909270063). A draft FCC proposal would bar USF funding for the purchase of telecom equipment from companies “posing a national security threat to the integrity of communications networks or the communications supply chain.” The order is seen as targeted at Huawei and ZTE (see 1910300036). Inhofe and Wicker urged Trump to address “this flagrant and willful decision by Chinese companies to ignore the intellectual property rights of the U.S.” and other countries “as a part of your ongoing trade negotiations with China.” The Chinese manufacturers' decision not to “adhere to” licensing laws “not only undermines faith in a world-recognized system of license fee payments, it also exposes the ambition of certain Chinese companies to unfairly seek an advantage over other law-abiding companies,” Inhofe and Wicker said. “We must change the ability of Chinese companies to access the U.S. market while simultaneously eroding the ability of the U.S. and other Western market-based companies to maintain their leading role in the research and development of advanced wireless technology.” The White House didn't comment.
LOUISVILLE -- Providers competing in broadband and companies that support them are projecting strong demand from consumers, businesses and government, they told Incompas Wednesday. Incompas CEO Chip Pickering recommended letting "every entrant enter this space because there is such a demand," especially rural. He called the push for ubiquitous deployment an issue "of national consensus" when few such issues are to be found. "It's good to be in our business right now."
The Rural Wireless Association raised concerns about language in a draft proposal by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to ban equipment from Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE from networks funded by the USF (see 1910300036). “Of major concern to RWA’s members … is the Commission’s intent to prohibit ‘USF recipients from using USF funds to maintain, improve, modify, or otherwise support equipment or services provided by covered companies,’” said a filing by RWA General Counsel Carri Bennet, posted Tuesday in docket 18-89: “This single sentence alone is overbroad and ultimately vague.” Bennet also questioned a statement that the prohibition “will apply to upgrades and maintenance of existing equipment and services.” Such restrictions would have “far-reaching, unintended consequences that disserve the public interest,” she said.
LOUISVILLE -- Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen wants to partner with fiber-network builders and U.S. manufacturers as the company moves to replace Sprint as the fourth nationwide wireless network and build its 5G infrastructure, he said in a keynote Tuesday at the Incompas Show. "Our best days are ahead of us," Ergen said. "We're not looking in the rear-view mirror."
The USF contribution factor will decline from 25 percent to 21.4 percent in the first quarter of next year, consultant Billy Gregg projected in an email Saturday. The Universal Services Administrative Co. published its demand projections for the USF programs for Q1 Friday. Net projected demand for rural broadband high-cost programs will be down 13 percent from 4Q 2019, Gregg said. Lifeline demand is expected to be down 30 percent from 4Q. "In spite of the fact that the number of eligible households has remained relatively stable, Lifeline subscribers have fallen" from 12.8 million at the end of the Q3 2016 to 6.9 million at the end of the 3Q 2019, a decline of 46 percent in three years, Gregg said. He added an accurate calculation of the Q1 assessment will be possible once the USF revenue projections come out in early December.