The FCC plans to prioritize bids for high-speed, low-latency broadband networks in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, said a draft rulemaking for docket 19-126 released Thursday. RDOF is one of several items that circulated from Chairman Ajit Pai. So far, it's shaping up to be the most watched item, and legislators expressed some related concerns.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and other lawmakers are restarting talks to advance legislation to provide funding to help U.S. communications providers remove from their networks Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security. December's bid to advance it quickly in the Senate had failed (see 1912190068). The House voted Wednesday to pass the Secure 5G and Beyond Act (HR-2881) and three other 5G-centric bills, as expected (see 2001030049).

Industry and others in Puerto Rico are evaluating the impact from earthquakes. "Our network is operating on back-up generators and batteries, and we are engaged with the power company as they work to restore service," an AT&T spokesperson emailed. "Our local teams are supporting public safety on FirstNet, as well as our customers, and are prepared to deploy additional recovery equipment if needed.” Liberty Puerto Rico tweeted Tuesday its stores remain closed until further notice for the safety of employees and customers. WorldNet Telecommunications is headquartered on the territory's north side and didn't experience the same damage as on the south side, said Marketing Director Rolando Texidor. He said company operations didn't receive structural damage, and it has power backup for equipment to address an island-wide blackout. Most of WorldNet's business customers have generators, Texidor said. WorldNet's team was accounted for. Texidor said many companies around the island were working with skeleton crews. The FCC is monitoring the situation, a spokesperson said. Telecom providers seek government aid through an FCC USF program to help rebuild and strengthen their networks following 2017 hurricanes (see 1808080011). Commissioners voted in September to move forward with the funding (see 1909260032).

America’s Communications Association and NTCA urged the FCC to reject a request to lower the proposed 100/20 Mbps tier in its upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to 100/10. "The commission will not achieve the objective of reasonable comparability" under USF standards "by cutting in half the upload speed for one of the highest performance tiers from the previous auction to a level that is less than 25 percent of the average upload speed today," said the groups in a letter Monday for docket 19-126. USTelecom filed several ex parte letters on the RDOF docket, including one Friday. Fiber-to-the-home "should be supported but the commission must strike the right balance to cover more rural American locations with speeds well in excess of the baseline," it said: Adding a 50/5 Mbps tier "would allow providers to serve broad geographic areas with speeds twice the baseline" and adjusting the upload requirement to 100/10 "would cut the cost of service by half, freeing up more funding for more broadband across rural America."

FCC national security supply chain rules barring equipment from Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE from networks funded by the USF take effect Friday, with Federal Register publication. Commissioners approved the order 5-0 at their November meeting (see 1911220033). Comments on the initial designations of Huawei and ZTE as covered companies are due Feb. 3 in docket 19-352. A Further NPRM seeks comment on additional actions. “The Commission proposes to require [eligible telecommunications carriers] receiving USF support to remove and replace covered equipment and services from their network operations,” the FNPRM says: “To mitigate the impact on affected entities, and in particular small, rural entities, the Commission proposes to establish a reimbursement program to offset reasonable transition costs. The Commission proposes to make the requirement to remove covered equipment and services by ETCs contingent on the availability of a funded reimbursement program.” Comments are due Feb. 3, replies March 3. Huawei and ZTE didn't comment Thursday.

Lifeline comments are due Jan. 27, replies Feb. 25 on the FCC’s Further NPRM in docket 17-287, says a notice in Friday's Federal Register. The FCC’s related fifth order in that docket takes effect Jan. 27, says another Friday notice. The 3-2 decision is on waste, fraud and abuse in the Lifeline USF program, with the rulemaking asking comment on prohibiting Lifeline providers from offering handsets to consumers at no cost (see 1911140064).

The FCC Wireline Bureau granted a waiver to the Missouri Research and Education Network (MOREnet) after the consortium included incorrect calculations on an E-rate program application for 2013-14, in an order posted Monday in docket 02-6. Ryan Palmer, chief of the bureau's Telecommunications Access Policy Division, said MOREnet acted in good faith, and the bureau found no evidence of waste, fraud or abuse of the USF program from the group's actions.

An item on an E-rate amortization requirement began circulating among FCC commissioners last week and appeared on its list updated Friday. Early this year, the FCC temporarily waived an E-rate requirement that schools and libraries participating in the USF program amortize over three years upfront, non-recurring charges of $500,000 or more and issued an NPRM in docket 19-2 proposing to eliminate the amortization requirement (see 1901310061).

ISPs expect wide participation in the first phase of the $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auctions FCC Chairman Ajit Pai signaled he wants in 2020, they said in interviews this month. RDOF replaces the Connect America Fund phase II USF program that supports deployment in high-cost, sparsely populated areas (see 1907110031). "We'll start to see the pace of things quicken in 2020," said Mike Saperstein, USTelecom vice president-policy and advocacy.

New Mexico legislators shouldn’t tweak state USF structure, size or purposes, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission recommended in a report sent to the legislature Friday. “No need” to raise the $30 million cap, which sufficiently covers current demands and possible future increases, the agency said in docket 19-00046-UT. “The Commission’s focus at this time is on increasing participation in the fund, particularly the participation of small, rural carriers, as the Commission does not believe that the fund is currently meeting their needs as well as it could.” The agency is mulling a rule change “to increase the number of applications that it receives for Broadband Program support,” including by “potentially decreasing or eliminating the 25% per-project matching amount that the Commission currently requires program awardees to fund from their own pockets.” The PRC may need to do outreach to small rural carriers “who simply may lack the resources to design projects and applications for broadband funding though the areas they serve are in need,” it said. CTIA had urged the New Mexico agency not to recommend USF changes (see 1911010022).