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VoIP and Other Items

ORAN Order on Tap for Aug. 5 FCC Meeting

Commissioners will vote on a follow-up open radio access network order at their Aug. 5 meeting, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told the FCC ORAN showcase. Commissioners will decide on designating Boston and Raleigh as innovation zones for testing 5G and ORAN technologies, she said. Rosenworcel laid out the rest of the meeting agenda in a blog post later Wednesday. It includes items on robocalls, updating political programming regulations and recordkeeping rules for low-power radio services.

FCC officials said Wednesday they hope the two-day virtual showcase will give smaller carriers a higher comfort level in looking at ORAN as an alternative to a traditional network for replacing Huawei and ZTE gear. In March, commissioners OK'd 4-0 an ORAN notice of inquiry (see 2103170049).

Rosenworcel noted she was the first commissioner to promote ORAN. “There’s momentum building in this agency and across government,” she said. ORAN hardware and software are “projected to reach 10% of the total market during the next few years,” she said: “We are no longer thinking about wireless equipment just in an end-to-end way. Instead, we are thinking about it as a more diverse and modular architecture.” She noted Dish Network’s push to build an ORAN-based 5G network.

ORAN could help restore U.S. leadership in the telecom equipment sector, said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “American companies are leading the way on open RAN." ORAN “is already driving competition,” he said. It could be “particularly helpful” to smaller carriers because it would allow them to update their networks through software, he said. “Amongst all this optimism, questions, of course, remain.” Small carriers are interested “but are worried about whether it’s going to work for them,” Starks said. Many can’t afford to experiment, particularly with the federal dollars coming through the rip and replace program, he said.

The replacement program won’t be easy, Rosenworcel said. “Removing insecure equipment from existing networks after installation is hard because historically these systems were closed and deeply integrated, with little opportunity to mix and match equipment from different vendors,” she said: “In some cases, this will mean starting over from scratch.”

ORAN “holds forth the promise of more secure networks,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington. A network that contains more commodity hardware and chips “means a network that has been thoroughly audited across industries,” he said. Some skeptics suggest “ORAN may close a door, but open a window” on security, he said: The FCC must acknowledge that threat.

Dish’s experience shows that getting different vendors to cooperate on open networks is tough, but important, said Stephen Bye, chief commercial officer for the wireless business. Dish tries to work with U.S.-based partners as much as possible, he said. Assessing the costs relative to a traditional network is complicated, he said. “It’s really the ability to get the total cost down across the entire system that’s important,” he said. ORAN lets providers to develop and deploy new features much more quickly, he said.

Aug. 5 Meeting

Raleigh and Boston would join New York City and Salt Lake City in offering city-scale test beds, managed by the National Science Foundation’s Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research, the FCC said of items being circulated.

Commissioners will consider a proposal to modernize rules on direct numbering access for VoIP service providers. The changes would “safeguard our finite numbering resources while seeking to curb robocalls and reduce the opportunity for regulatory arbitrage,” Rosenworcel said. Commissioners would consider changes to the compensation methodology for IP relay providers to “ensure that financial support is sufficient to sustain a functionally equivalent telephone service for eligible consumers,” she wrote.

The FCC will also take up further secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) rules, also aimed at curbing unwanted robocalls. Rules require voice providers to implement and participate in the Stir/Skaken caller ID authentication framework. Commissioners will vote on a process for carriers to appeal decisions by the private group that oversees the program if they are found to be noncompliant, Rosenworcel said.

Another order is aimed at “making it easier to use low-power radio services,” addressing various recon petitions, Rosenworcel said. “We would permit FM as an optional modulation scheme in the CB Radio Service; allow automatic or periodic location and data transmissions on General Mobile Service and Family Radio Service frequencies; and correct inadvertent modifications to our rules for medical device communications.”

Also on tap are a pair of proposed updates to political programming and recordkeeping rules for broadcasters and MVPDs, Rosenworcel said. She said the last formal review of the rules was 30 years ago.