Howard Buskirk

FCC commissioners will vote at their May 23 open meeting on an NPRM proposing labs from companies on the agency’s “covered list” of unsecure firms be barred from participating in the equipment authorization process. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr announced the NPRM Wednesday. “This new proceeding would permanently prohibit Huawei and other entities on the FCC’s Covered List from playing any role in the equipment authorization program while also providing the FCC and its national security partners the necessary tools to safeguard this important process,” a news release said. “We must ensure that our equipment authorization program and those entrusted with administering it can rise to the challenge posed by persistent and ever-changing security and supply chain threats,” Rosenworcel said. The NPRM is “another significant step in the FCC’s work to advance the security of America’s communications networks,” Carr said: It proposes “to ensure that the test labs and certification bodies that review electronic devices for compliance with FCC requirements are themselves trustworthy actors that the FCC can rely on.” The NPRM builds on a 2022 order, which bans FCC authorization of gear from companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision and Dahua Technology (see 2211230065). Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remanded part of that order to the FCC to further develop the definition of critical infrastructure (see 2404020068). Commissioners will also consider an adjudicatory matter from the Media Bureau, and four items from the Enforcement Bureau as part of the abbreviated agenda, per Rosenworcel's note. She thanked other commissioners for their work on national security issues. “Working together, we have enacted and enforced rules to safeguard our wired and wireless networks from communications equipment that has been determined to pose an unacceptable risk to national security,” she said.

The term smart city can be useful for policymakers as they discuss using advanced communications and other tools to move cities forward, Bill Maguire, founder of Connected Communities, said during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. Smart cities aren’t a destination, but a process, he said. Maguire believes individual cities must define smart city for themselves and act accordingly.

Developing rules for opening the lower 3 GHz band, a top focus of U.S. carriers (see 2404080063), won’t be easy, Monisha Ghosh, engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame and former FCC chief technologist, said during an RCR Wireless virtual test and management forum Tuesday. Much discussion at the forum centered on the challenges of performance testing in evolving 5G networks.

Wi-Fi advocates and 6 GHz incumbents disagreed sharply on an FCC proposal to expand the parts of the 6 GHz band where very-low power (VLP) devices can operate without coordination, beyond the initial 850 MHz commissioners approved last year (see [Ref:2310190054). In one development of note, tech companies saw support for a proposal to create a geofenced variable power (GVP) device class. Replies were posted Monday in docket 18-295.

FCC commissioners approved fines against the then-four national wireless carriers for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations, in orders released Monday. The vote was 3-2. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon plan to appeal.

Tuesday marks the last day that eligible households enrolled in the affordable connectivity program will receive full funding, Miriam Montgomery, chief of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau’s Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division, noted during a National Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors webinar on Monday. The webinar also included an update on the national broadband map.

CTIA told the FCC that U.S. networks are secure in comments on a notice from the FCC Public Safety Bureau on providers’ implementation of security counter-measures to prevent the exploitation of vulnerabilities in the Signaling System 7 (SS7) and Diameter protocols to track the locations of consumers through their mobile devices. Comments were due Friday in docket 18-99. Major carriers emphasized that their systems were updated to address risks. That was also the industry message when the agency asked about Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council recommendations on diameter protocol security four years ago (see 2003120030). “U.S. providers’ commitment to security has resulted in U.S. networks being relatively more secure from legacy SS7 and Diameter risks than networks in other regions,” CTIA said. CTIA explained that technology is evolving. Legacy SS7 signaling is used today only in legacy 2G and 3G networks and Diameter in 4G and non-stand-alone 5G networks and “was deployed to help reduce risks associated with SS7 and is less susceptible to attacks,” the group said. Stand-alone 5G networks use HTTP/2 for signaling. Verizon said it knows of no successful attempts to access network user location data on its network using weaknesses in the SS7 or Diameter protocols since CSRIC’s adoption of best practices in 2018. “As Verizon explained in response to previous public notices relating to SS7 and Diameter security, in interviews with Commission staff, and in its responses to the Letter of Inquiry received from the Bureau” in October 2022 “we have implemented the relevant recommendations issued by the CSRIC and GSMA on signaling security,” the carrier said. As noted in previous filings, “AT&T has employed an aggressive, multifaceted approach to SS7 and Diameter security” and “continues to take significant, aggressive steps to protect the SS7 and Diameter networks including implementation of CSRIC’s working group recommendation,” the carrier said.

T-Mobile is considering how to use its growing fiber footprint to further bolster its Home Internet base, CEO Mike Sievert said on a call with investors late Thursday. T-Mobile earlier in the day unveiled a joint venture with infrastructure investor EQT (see 2404250047).

NTIA “is hard at work” implementing the national spectrum strategy, the agency said as it offered details on its progress. Derek Khlopin, deputy associate administrator-spectrum planning and policy in the Office of Spectrum Management, is now in charge of implementing the plan for NTIA, the agency said: “First up: initiating technical studies of spectrum bands -- including a process to streamline funding to federal agencies -- and kicking off the exploration and demonstration of advanced spectrum management techniques including Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.” NTIA is working with other federal agencies on “streamlining” the process for receiving money from the spectrum relocation fund (SRF) and anticipates distributing funds in October. “We expect that more than 10 federal agencies will seek funding, and our hope is this streamlined process will make the application process easier and quicker for these agencies,” it said. Under a three-step process, each agency must submit an application for funding, which is reviewed by a Technical Panel, chaired by NTIA, with representatives from the Office of Management and Budget and the FCC, which considers the request. “If approved by the Technical Panel, OMB notifies Congress and, after a mandatory 60-day waiting period, disperses the funds to each requesting agency,” NTIA said. It noted the presentation DOD made at CTIA this month on dynamic spectrum sharing (see 2404080063) but said it was “separate and apart” from a study that’s getting underway on the lower 3 GHz band's future. NTIA released the implementation plan for the strategy in March (see 2403120056).

Industry groups largely questioned the wisdom of using the voluntary cyber mark program for IoT devices, approved in March, to further clamp down on international security threats. But the proposals also received some support from the Internet Protocol Video Market (IPVM) and Whirlpool. FCC commissioners approved 5-0 a Further NPRM, along with the implementing order, asking about software and hardware from countries of national security concern and whether data from U.S. citizens will be stored abroad (see 2403140034). Comments were posted Thursday in docket 23-239.