FCC Ponders Single Foreign Telecom Gear Replacement Filing Opportunity
Carriers seeking funding to replace Huawei and ZTE gear in their networks face tight restrictions as part of the process to get money from the FCC under the 2019 Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, Wireline Bureau Legal Adviser Justin…
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Faulb said during a Rural Wireless Association webinar Monday. The FY 2021 appropriations and COVID-19 aid omnibus bill (HR-133) provides $1.9 billion (see 2012220061). Applicants must maintain detailed records for 10 years of all costs eligible for reimbursement, Faulb said. The FCC has 90 days to act on requests and can extend that 45 days, he said. If an application has “material defects,” companies have 15 days to correct them or must wait for a second window, Faulb said: Now the FCC is considering only one filing window, to be open for 30 days. All applications will be reviewed equally. The FCC will then analyze the level of demand and allocate funds based on individual applications, he said. If demand exceeds supply, eligible telecom carriers are first in line, with priority given for changes to the core network, he said. Once awards are announced, an applicant has a year to file the first reimbursement claim, “so you can’t sit on it and wait,” he said. Faulb advised companies to prepare now, noting that work must be completed within a year of the initial disbursement. The FCC can issue a blanket six-month extension if it finds equipment and services aren’t adequate, notifying Congress, he said. The agency can OK multiple individual six-month extensions, he said. “There’s a lot of pressure to get this done quickly and remove this insecure equipment,” he said. After the year, companies have an additional 120 days to file a claim and can seek a 120-day extension, he said. Only equipment on the FCC’s covered equipment list obtained before Aug. 14, 2018, is currently eligible for reimbursement, he said. Congress doesn't allow any equipment replaced to be used elsewhere, and companies must document that it's destroyed, he said. Recipients face audits and inspections similar to those in the rest of the USF, he said. Anyone who violates the rules can be required to pay back the funds, be barred from the USF and face legal penalties, Faulb said: “Please don’t break the rules.” The biggest question members have is when the FCC will release the public notice announcing the filing window, said RWA General Counsel Carri Bennet. “We’re working closely on it” and seeking a third-party fund administrator, Faulb said. “We’ll have to follow the government’s procure schedule, which will take some time based on just the steps we have to jump through.”