There's a need for a new federal broadband plan, with different metrics and tasked outside the FCC, panelists said Tuesday during the Incompas Policy Summit. They commented on the 10-year-old FCC National Broadband Plan.

The South Carolina Public Service Commission should do nothing in response to a Jan. 30 staff audit, Frontier Communications said Monday in docket 2019-352-C. Office of Regulatory Staff says the company needs to improve reporting and restoration of service outages, and accounting practices for USF spending (see 2002200022). If the commission wants to act, it should collect comments from all providers and apply policies market-wide, the carrier said. “An arbitrary determination that all aging equipment should be replaced is not appropriate or fiscally responsible,” and staff haven't shown a recurring problem justifying regular reports to the commission on status of telecom equipment, said Frontier. The carrier disagreed it should have to specifically state USF spending: ORS hasn’t shown it would help the telco provide affordable service, the provider said.

An Oregon bill to expand state USF to broadband and extend fees to VoIP and cellphones cleared the Joint Committee on Ways and Means at a webcast Friday meeting. HB-4079 reduces the fee to 6% from 8.5% and would take effect Jan. 1. Oregon had missed out on millions of dollars in broadband support because the state couldn’t put up matching funds, said sponsor Sen. Arnie Roblan (D). Cellphone bills could increase 40 to 60 cents, noted Sen. Lee Beyer (D). Sen. Rob Wagner (D) said he was opposed last year but would vote yes despite lingering “heartburn.” Wagner, whose district includes part of Portland, thinks it’s “a little bit problematic and maybe even perverse that we're talking about an urban-rural divide in this state when the folks that are utilizing cellphones in my Senate district are not people who would be benefiting from this last mile or rural broadband expansion.” No Republicans attended the meeting due to their walkout over a climate-change bill.

Senate passage of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998) got more praise Thursday and Friday (see 2002270070), including from the bill’s original co-sponsors and FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. The bill would allocate at least $1 billion to help U.S. communications providers remove from their networks Chinese equipment deemed to threaten national security. The House passed the measure in December (see 1912160052), meaning it now moves on to President Donald Trump. “The existence of Huawei’s technology in our networks represents an immense threat to America’s national and economic security,” said original bill sponsors House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. "This bipartisan bill will help communities across the country by bolstering efforts to keep our communications supply chain safe from foreign adversaries and other dangerous actors, while helping small and rural providers remove and replace suspect network equipment.” Starks tweeted he’s “very glad to see bipartisan agreement around helping small carriers get untrustworthy equipment out of their networks.” The FCC “needs to work quickly to get these funds to providers,” he said, replying to our tweet reporting the development. “We’ll all be more secure when the replacement is done.” FCC national security supply chain rules barring equipment from Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE from networks funded by the USF took effect in January (see 2001020027).

The FCC voted to propose an Oct. 22 auction date for the first phase of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and to release a public notice for docket 20-34 on procedures for its auction 904. That was despite pushback from Democratic Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks, as was expected (see 2002270004). They partly dissented. The PN would seek comment on proposals such as how large the eligible bidding areas should be and how much information should be collected in short-form applications.

At least the three FCC GOP members will approve a public notice on Rural Digital Opportunity Fund procedures at Friday's meeting that would authorize an Oct. 22 auction date for the first phase of the USF program, industry and agency officials said in interviews this week. It's less clear how much pushback it will get from Democratic commissioners. At last month's meeting, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called the fast pace of the RDOF rulemaking, before the FCC had a chance to correct widely disputed broadband mapping data, "an election year bonanza" (see 2001300001).

The FCC is collecting data from eligible telecom carriers on whether they use equipment or services from Huawei or ZTE, said a public notice Wednesday for docket 18-89. An agency rule bars USF funds for equipment posing a national security threat to the telecom supply chain (see 2002040047). Data includes the type of Huawei or ZTE equipment or services ETCs own or use, purchase and installation costs, and removal and replacement costs. The FCC has proposed reimbursing small rural carriers (see 1906270039). Carriers not designated ETCs may also file, the agency said. Filings are due by April 22. Senate Commerce plans a March 4 hearing on 5G supply chain security (see 2002260028). Three Democratic presidential candidates said in Tuesday night's debate they wouldn't allow Chinese firms to build critical U.S. infrastructure (see 2002260019).

Comments are due March 26, replies April 10, on a population distribution methodology, proposed by GCI Communications and modified by the Alaska Telecom Association, for estimating how many Alaskans receive mobile service within census blocks in remote areas and determining which are eligible for USF support, said an FCC public notice on docket 16-271.

Letter of credit requirements in the Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund to help telecom providers rebuild and harden networks are a barrier to small companies' ability to compete for the USF support and are "more onerous" than those in the FCC's new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (see 2001290018), Critical Hub Networks President Carlo Marazzi and Senior Vice President Karen Larson told Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. That was during Friday's Starks-hosted field hearing in San Juan (see 2002200021), said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-143. Marazzi said none of the territory's three banks is eligible to issue a LOC under the fund's rules. "U.S. banks are generally hesitant to conduct business with entities in Puerto Rico" due to its government debt crisis and recent natural disasters, he added. "Banks typically require cash or securities collateral in order to issue a LOC, which would tie up a significant portion of assets, and such assets may be necessary to meet the FCC's milestone and deployment schedule."

A Kentucky man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the USF E-rate program from 2004 to 2014, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee said Friday. Mark Whitaker helped manage companies owned by co-defendant Chuck Jones and submitted false E-rate certifications at Jones' direction, resulting in about $6.9 million in fraudulent E-rate payments, DOJ said. Sentencing for Whitaker is set for July 23. He faces a maximum three years in prison, one year supervised release and $250,000 in fines. Charges against Jones are pending, the government said.