Telecom Groups Urge Appropriations Hike for FCC Rip-and-Replace Program
ACA Connects, the Competitive Carriers Association and six other communications groups urged the House and Senate Appropriations committees Thursday to give the FCC additional funding for its program to reimburse U.S. carriers for removing Huawei and ZTE equipment from their…
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networks under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. Congress allocated $1.9 billion to the program via the FY 2021 Appropriations and COVID-19 aid omnibus law (see 2012210055), but carriers’ reimbursement requests totaled almost $5.6 billion by early February, the groups wrote House and Senate Appropriations leaders. “Barring further resources, the FCC will be forced to implement prorating available funding using the prioritization process directed by Congress,” the groups said. “Due to the significant amount of shortfall from current appropriations, prorating funding without additional resources threatens to significantly limit” the FCC program’s ability “to complete its mission. Service providers, which have already expended or committed significant resources under the assurance that reimbursements would be available, could be left unable to complete the removal and replacement of covered equipment and services, or be forced to shutter their business entirely, threatening the availability and security of advanced communications across the country, particularly in rural America.” Delays “in providing additional resources could have a chilling effect on accomplishing the goals directed by Congress to secure our nation’s communications networks,” the groups said.