Biden FCC Likely to Build on Past Work on Supply Chain Security
Supply chain security is likely to remain a top FCC focus under President Joe Biden, said Umair Javed, aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, during an FCBA webinar Tuesday. Rosenworcel is expected to be named interim, and possibly permanent, chair, during the next administration. FCC and industry officials told us commissioners are likely to approve a final security item proposed by Chairman Ajit Pai 5-0 (see 2011190059), at their meeting Thursday.
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“Protecting the U.S. communications supply chain has been a priority for every member of the FCC,” Javed said. “The agency has taken significant, bipartisan action against supply chain threats over the past few years in a way that it has simply never done before.” He said: “All this activity … lays the groundwork for what is in essence a new regulatory framework for communications security that didn’t exist even two years ago.”
Security “has been a particularly important focus for my boss,” Javed said. Rosenworcel was the first commissioner to call for a 5G focus for the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council, and the first to discuss the importance of open radio access networks, he said. Democrats and Republicans urged the FCC to do more, he said. “There has been support … for expanding the agency’s focus beyond the USF program and asking questions about legal authority to do so,” Javed said: “There’s been support to broaden the scope of investigations.” The Biden administration is also likely to put more emphasis on multilateralism and international coordination, he said.
“Things will not change, necessarily, under a new administration,” said Diane Rinaldo, executive director of the Open RAN Policy Coalition, responding to our question. “A new administration is going to want to put their brand” on tactics and messaging, she said. “These are issues that are nonpartisan for the most part,” said Rinaldo, former acting NTIA administrator under Donald Trump. “We’ve gotten so much accomplished in the last couple of years I see things continuing to move in a positive direction.”
“We’re going to see the unanswered work with regard to China and the trade front come back into focus, or maybe a new approach,” predicted Rob Strayer, Information Technology Industry Council executive vice president-policy and a former State Department official under Trump. There isn’t more supplier diversity because of the “massive subsidies” offered by the Chinese government and “a very closed market within China that keeps out competitors,” he said.
When the internet was launched, security wasn’t “top of mind in the design,” said Brian Hendricks, Nokia Americas region vice president-policy and government relations. “5G security has been a topic for a long time in the planning and the anticipation and the standards work that has gone into it.” CSRIC and others in industry are also looking closely at security for 4G networks, he said: “Kind of a ‘what did we get wrong in the last generation’ focus went into the thinking."
“Just getting to 5G is going to be challenge enough for the small companies” before they can worry about security, said John Nettles, president of Pine Belt Telephone & Wireless. It and other small carriers spent lots of money and time documenting their need for Mobility Fund Phase II money, he said. “Essentially for our efforts we were told, ‘Thanks for the feedback, have a nice day, we’re going a different direction.’” He said small carriers have to spend USF legacy support on 5G with no idea which areas will be eligible for the new 5G Fund.