If Huawei equipment is enough of a threat to warrant barring USF funds to networks using it (see 1911220033), the FCC should look further into having that hardware removed even from networks where carriers aren't getting USF funds, Commissioner Brendan Carr said at Tuesday's Practising Law Institute conference. Legal issues could arise with that approach, but the topic should at least "be on the table," he said. He said the FCC is working "with other three-letter agencies" on such issues. Huawei didn't comment.

Eligible telecom carriers must enhance engagement with tribal communities to address challenges deploying broadband there, Gila River Telecommunications Inc. (GRTI) told the FCC. Comments were posted through Friday in docket 10-90. GRTI said "the time for discussing whether broadband will be delivered to Indian Country must end. The next phase of engagement must focus on the development of concrete plans for each tribal community to gain broadband access." It recommends elevating the Office of Native Affairs and Policy to a separate office independent of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and having it report directly to the chairman and commissioners. GRTI wants ONAP to develop a voluntary process to engage tribal governments and ETCs with service areas including tribal lands that haven't deployed broadband to determine when it makes sense for tribal governments to take an ownership stake in the ETC. The Alaska Rural Coalition asked the FCC to answer its 2011 petition for reconsideration on "unique challenges facing Alaska carriers." It wants the FCC to allow carriers to substitute informal engagement with strategic performance benchmarks, as "formal outreach [hasn't] proven particularly effective." USTelecom has legal concerns about members' First Amendment rights and a current requirement ETCs market their services "in a culturally sensitive manner," which can interfere with effective dialogue. The Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority said the tribal engagement process "is currently form over substance." The National Tribal Telecommunications Association wants additional enforcement of the tribal engagement rule.

Eligible telecom carriers must enhance engagement with tribal communities to address challenges deploying broadband there, Gila River Telecommunications Inc. (GRTI) told the FCC. Comments were posted through Friday in docket 10-90. GRTI said "the time for discussing whether broadband will be delivered to Indian Country must end. The next phase of engagement must focus on the development of concrete plans for each tribal community to gain broadband access." It recommends elevating the Office of Native Affairs and Policy to a separate office independent of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and having it report directly to the chairman and commissioners. GRTI wants ONAP to develop a voluntary process to engage tribal governments and ETCs with service areas including tribal lands that haven't deployed broadband to determine when it makes sense for tribal governments to take an ownership stake in the ETC. The Alaska Rural Coalition asked the FCC to answer its 2011 petition for reconsideration on "unique challenges facing Alaska carriers." It wants the FCC to allow carriers to substitute informal engagement with strategic performance benchmarks, as "formal outreach [hasn't] proven particularly effective." USTelecom has legal concerns about members' First Amendment rights and a current requirement ETCs market their services "in a culturally sensitive manner," which can interfere with effective dialogue. The Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority said the tribal engagement process "is currently form over substance." The National Tribal Telecommunications Association wants additional enforcement of the tribal engagement rule.

State and federal governments should link arms on USF programs, including more syncing up between the California Advanced Service Fund (CASF) and the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and Connect America Fund (CAF), the California Public Utilities Commission told the FCC. Staff from the CPUC Communications Division and the FCC’s Wireline Bureau and Office of Native Affairs had a call Tuesday, said a Thursday-posted filing in docket 19-126. FCC staff say they plan to wrap RDOF meetings by month’s end and hope to start taking bidding applications late next year after auction rules are adopted, the CPUC said. Statestaffers said it’s hard to know how many CAF Phase II subscribers are in California because carriers don’t report it, so they use subscribers to 10/1 Mbps as a proxy. “CPUC staff noted that subscribership to CAF II appears to be fairly low, below 15%, with some counties at 0%.” Thursday, the CPUC scheduled a Jan. 22 en banc hearing on how California should update rules and processes to keep up with the communications market, following up on a May meeting (see 1905200052). The commission wants providers to weigh in on affordability, rural and tribal challenges, grant programs and network sharing. The hearing is 10 a.m. PST.

State and federal governments should link arms on USF programs, including more syncing up between the California Advanced Service Fund (CASF) and the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and Connect America Fund (CAF), the California Public Utilities Commission told the FCC. Staff from the CPUC Communications Division and the FCC’s Wireline Bureau and Office of Native Affairs had a call Tuesday, said a Thursday-posted filing in docket 19-126. FCC staff say they plan to wrap RDOF meetings by month’s end and hope to start taking bidding applications late next year after auction rules are adopted, the CPUC said. Statestaffers said it’s hard to know how many CAF Phase II subscribers are in California because carriers don’t report it, so they use subscribers to 10/1 Mbps as a proxy. “CPUC staff noted that subscribership to CAF II appears to be fairly low, below 15%, with some counties at 0%.” Thursday, the CPUC scheduled a Jan. 22 en banc hearing on how California should update rules and processes to keep up with the communications market, following up on a May meeting (see 1905200052). The commission wants providers to weigh in on affordability, rural and tribal challenges, grant programs and network sharing. The hearing is 10 a.m. PST.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai sidestepped comment on Hawaii and Native American requests to amend priority filing window eligibility rules for tribes seeking 2.5 GHz licenses (see 1911260054), in letters dated Monday to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, New Mexico's Pueblo of Jemez and the National Congress of American Indians (see here, here and here). "The digital divide is most keenly felt in Indian Country," he said. "That’s why I insisted on, and the Commission included, a Tribal priority filing window in our order opening the 2.5 GHz band for additional use; that early opportunity to access this spectrum will help some of the most marginalized communities in the country."

The FCC will host a workshop Jan. 14 at its headquarters on the 2.5 GHz band rural tribal priority window opening Feb. 3, it said Monday. It said more information, including specifics about the application filing process and the workshop, will be posted at its rural tribal window website by Jan. 6.

As libraries, schools and nonprofits step up efforts to loan mobile wireless hot spots to those without residential broadband, demand is rising. Long-term, sustainable funding remains a challenge, said those interviewed last week. Anchor institutions offer free hot spot devices and accompanying wireless broadband access for checkouts that can range from a week or two up to a typical school year.

As libraries, schools and nonprofits step up efforts to loan mobile wireless hot spots to those without residential broadband, demand is rising. Long-term, sustainable funding remains a challenge, said those interviewed last week. Anchor institutions offer free hot spot devices and accompanying wireless broadband access for checkouts that can range from a week or two up to a typical school year.

The Hawaiian Broadband Initiative and National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) petitioned the FCC on priority filing window eligibility rules for tribes seeking 2.5 GHz spectrum licenses. In a docket 18-120 posting Tuesday, the Hawaii agency said native Hawaiians not being listed as an eligible party for window participation wasn't raised with the agency before its October order because no reasonable party would have anticipated the FCC's saying Hawaiian homelands are eligible for the window but omit native Hawaiians from the list of eligible applicants to participate. Gov. David Ige (D) (see here) and state Office of Hawaiian Affairs (see 1911250040) also raised eligibility red flags. NCAI said the FCC should reconsider limiting off-reservation lands including tribal trust lands from the eligibility window because that limit will especially affect rural tribal nations without reservations or that have service populations located in noncontiguous parcels of off-reservation trust land. It said the agency should reconsider its requirement that an area be "rural" to qualify for the tribal priority window. The commission didn't comment.