Huawei petitioned the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the FCC banning rural eligible telecom carriers from using USF programs to buy equipment that could come from the Chinese firm, the company said Thursday. Last month, the FCC voted, for national security, to ban Huawei and ZTE equipment on networks bought with USF dollars (see 1911220033). The FCC declined comment now.

State and federal governments should link arms on USF programs, including more syncing up between the California Advanced Service Fund (CASF) and the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and Connect America Fund (CAF), the California Public Utilities Commission told the FCC. Staff from the CPUC Communications Division and the FCC’s Wireline Bureau and Office of Native Affairs had a call Tuesday, said a Thursday-posted filing in docket 19-126. FCC staff say they plan to wrap RDOF meetings by month’s end and hope to start taking bidding applications late next year after auction rules are adopted, the CPUC said. Statestaffers said it’s hard to know how many CAF Phase II subscribers are in California because carriers don’t report it, so they use subscribers to 10/1 Mbps as a proxy. “CPUC staff noted that subscribership to CAF II appears to be fairly low, below 15%, with some counties at 0%.” Thursday, the CPUC scheduled a Jan. 22 en banc hearing on how California should update rules and processes to keep up with the communications market, following up on a May meeting (see 1905200052). The commission wants providers to weigh in on affordability, rural and tribal challenges, grant programs and network sharing. The hearing is 10 a.m. PST.

House Communications Subcommittee members from both parties grilled FCC commissioners during a Thursday hearing on recent actions, including the commission's long-running investigation into wireless carriers' location tracking practices (see 1805240073), and what some deemed Chairman Ajit Pai's failure to adequately loop legislators in on his plans. Pai was praised on his proposal for a public auction of spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band, as expected (see 1912040028). House Communications Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and others drilled in further on C-band plans, with an eye to advancing legislation (see 1911210056).

The House Communications Subcommittee's Thursday FCC oversight hearing is expected to include criticism of commission actions and a focus on telecom policy priorities like deciding how to allocate proceeds from a coming auction of the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band, said lawmakers and others in interviews. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the other four commissioners are to testify during the panel, which will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The hearing will happen a day after the House easily passed another FCC-related policy priority, the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (S-151).

The FCC plans an NPRM early next year to take recommendations on a 10-year, $9 billion rural 5G Fund proposed Wednesday by Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1912040037). It would replace the Mobility Fund Phase II auction for which the FCC had planned $4.53 billion in USF spending over 10 years. Staff recommended the proposal because of mapping problems, and now seeks an audit of some carriers. One of those companies, Verizon, turned the focus back to the regulator.

South Carolina's Public Service Commission gave staff another week to complete an initial assessment to show state USF funds should continue to be withheld from Frontier Communications in response to a 24-day outage in Georgetown County. At livestreamed oral argument Tuesday in Columbia, PSC members supported by voice a motion by Commissioner Tom Ervin. The nonpartisan commission last week held November’s monthly USF payment to Frontier in response to an Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) petition seeking suspension of USF money so it can audit whether the carrier is appropriately using the support (see 1911260023). Tuesday, Ervin said his motion would shift the burden of proof to ORS: “This is a drastic remedy to take such a large source of funds away from a struggling company.” Commissioners are concerned about maintaining residential landline service and fixing outages quickly, but the telco took remedial steps and provided information, he said. ORS should work overtime to expedite its audit, and share more evidence supporting its request at a follow-up meeting Tuesday, Ervin said. Frontier attorney Chris Terreni said the commission shouldn't continue holding funds in the meantime, and Commissioner John Howard also questioned why the payment can’t be released now. Ervin responded that the company is welcome to request mandamus if it wants funds now. “Frontier has taken measures … to change the way it responds to an outage of the duration and size of what occurred in St. Luke's,” Terreni told commissioners. Its workers "tried their best" but "needed more resources and they waited too long to bring them in.” Frontier apologized to customers affected by the outage and provided three-month bill credits, the lawyer said. The carrier can’t promise there won’t be future outages, “but our response is going to be better,” he said. No evidence shows Frontier isn’t using USF money appropriately, and suspending that “is not logical or consistent with due process,” he said. Commissioner Florence Belser asked if anything in statute, PSC guidelines or precedent supports ORS’ request. ORS lawyer Chris Huber agreed the request is unusual but said the office can seek it as the fund’s administrator. Belser later asked, "If there is a problem with their response and their procedures, is that sufficient to warrant yanking USF funds?" Outages worry Commissioner Swain Whitfield. "One of the biggest concerns of the commission," he said, "is basic landline services being interrupted to the point where emergency services are compromised.”

The Q1 USF contribution factor will drop to 21.2 percent from its current 25 percent, consultant Billy Gregg emailed Tuesday. That's after Universal Service Administrative Co. filed projections, in docket 06-122 Monday.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants to spend some $9 billion from the USF over about 10 years for fifth-generation wireless services. At least $1 billion would be for precision agriculture, the agency announced this afternoon.

As libraries, schools and nonprofits step up efforts to loan mobile wireless hot spots to those without residential broadband, demand is rising. Long-term, sustainable funding remains a challenge, said those interviewed last week. Anchor institutions offer free hot spot devices and accompanying wireless broadband access for checkouts that can range from a week or two up to a typical school year.

NARUC is forming a task force to find answers to close the broadband gap between rural and urban areas, said NARUC President Brandon Presley in an interview this week. Broadband's “one of the biggest challenges in rural America today” and will be a major focus of NARUC's “Bridging the Divide” theme over the next year, said Presley, elected president this month (see 1911210039). The Democratic chairman of the Mississippi Public Service Commission also seeks to tighten the working relationship between state and FCC officials, he said.