FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel Responds to Senators Regarding the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to Sens Peters (D-MI), Wicker (R-MS), Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Thune (R-SD) regarding their concerns about the reimbursement requests that the FCC has received through the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. Multichannel News reports that communications providers who must rip and replace untrusted technology from their networks, per Congress' directive, have applied for about $5.6 billion from the FCC to compensate them. That’s a lot more than the regulator had estimated and multiples of what Congress allocated for the purpose. Rosenworcel said the FCC should have a better sense of why the demand exceeded expectations after that, but in the meantime said there were three primary reasons. First, the FCC's cost estimate was based on swapping out ZTE and Huawei tech and a data collection from 50 companies that said it would cost about $1.83 billion to do that. That was part of an FCC program that predated Congress' mandate in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. The FCC wound up getting applications from 96 applicants. Second, the FCC's estimate did not include all the companies that became eligible under Congress' mandate when it expanded that eligibility from companies with 2 million or fewer subs to ones with 10 million or fewer. That added $1.5 billion to the application pot. Third, inflation, supply chain issues, and Congress' tight one-year turnaround have added about $2 billion in increased costs.