The Federal Communications Commission concluded that five Chinese telecommunications companies, including Huawei, pose a risk to U.S. national security, a significant move early in the Biden administration after the Trump administration’s all-out effort to limit the Chinese tech company’s reach in the United States and abroad.
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted significant gaps in the availability of broadband access faced by millions of rural and low-income Americans, and the vulnerability of our broadband networks to single points of failure and other threats. This article discusses recent and near-term initiatives that are intended to address these issues in the coming years, and opportunities and risks they present.
Highlights
Billions in federal funding are being considered to fill gaps.
Biden administration expected to focus on broadband upgrades.
$1.9 billion program established to “rip and replace” Chinese-made network equipment.
Over the last year, as COVID-19 forced us to physically isolate ourselves, broadband networks proved how critical they are to our nation’s economy. They kept us connected not only to our work but our family and friends. They have been, in the words of the Federal Communications Commission, “the indispensable infrastructure of our economy and our every
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In a Second Report & Order (Second R&O) published in the Federal Register January 13, 2021, with an effective date of March 15, 2022 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously adopted rules that implement the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 (Secure Networks Act). Those rules require Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (ETCs) to remove and replace covered equipment and services, which are to be included on the covered list required by Section 2 of the Secure Networks Act, from their network and operations environments.
The Second R&O also establishes a Reimbursement Program that will provide funds to smaller providers of advanced communications services for removal and replacement of covered equipment, and establishes reporting requirements to monitor the presence of such equipment and services in communications networks. Through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (effective De
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On December 10, 2020, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC or Commission) unanimously approved a Second Report and Order on supply chain security (Second R&O), which is the latest effort in its evolving role with national security issues.[1] The FCC characterized the item as “another major step towards securing our communications networks by adopting rules to implement the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019.”
Among other things, the Second R&O:
establishes the procedures and criteria for publishing a list of covered communications equipment and services that pose an unacceptable risk to national security;
The FCC voted Thursday to implement a program that will pay some US network operators to rip out their Huawei and ZTE equipment and replace it with trusted infrastructure.
However, the effort s details remain somewhat vague, including exactly where network operators can turn to for replacement parts.
Interestingly, the agency did offer one clear guideline on the topic: It s OK for network operators in the program to use open RAN equipment. The Replacement List should include equipment and services equipped, or upgradable to, be used in O-RAN, or in virtualized networks, the FCC wrote in its new 130-page order on the topic, using the O-RAN moniker to refer to open RAN technology. Including O-RAN equipment and services . is consistent with the Secure Networks Act s requirement that the Replacement List be technologically neutral.