Part 90 Transition to CBRS Operations On March 19, 2020, the FCC released its Order, DA 20-291, in which the FCC has announced the extension of six-months for existing Part 90 license holders. April 17, 2020, was the original transition deadline from Part 90 operations to Part 96, Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS), operations for … Read more
Limited Challenge Process and Filing Deadline Set Preliminary Eligible Locations Released On March 17, 2020, the Wireless Competition Bureau (WCB) released a Public Notice that announced the preliminary list of census blocks and a map of areas that have been deemed initially eligible for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction (Auction 904). … Read more
FCC’s Supply Chain Data Collection All Universal Service Fund (USF) recipients that were eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) as of December 31, 2019, must respond to the mandatory Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Supply Chain Data Collection (Data Collection) due no later than April 22, 2020. Other USF and service providers that are not ETCs are also … Read more
Vantage Point is pleased to share that Lee Jager, Integration Services Manager, has been honored with the Service Member Patriot Award by the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). The Patriot award recognizes individual supervisors for support provided to a nominating Service member and his or her family. The award reflects efforts made … Read more
Two industry leaders combine nearly 70 years of experience, more than 350 staff, and 7 office locations. Vantage Point Solutions and GVNW Consulting are pleased to announce their merger. The two companies combine nearly 70 years of experience, more than 350 staff, and 7 office locations. “GVNW’s leadership and experience has been an asset to … Read more
Feb. 7, 2020: FCC Releases RDOF Order The FCC has just released the Report and Order previously approved at the January 30 open meeting; the full document is linked here. The Vantage Point Consulting and Engineering teams are actively reviewing this Order for any significant changes, surprises, or declarations. If you wish to receive a … Read more
RDOF: What’s Happening Now? Vantage Point has fielded several inquiries about the status of RDOF since the FCC’s January 30 meeting. Here we are providing an update about what is happening now, what to expect next, and what steps you can be taking at this time. What’s happening now Last week the FCC voted to … Read more
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) & Copyright Infringement On December 19, 2019, a jury awarded Sony $1 billion in damages against Cox Communications after ruling that Cox failed to protect its network against copyright infringement by the ISP’s subscribers. Generally, ISPs are allowed safe harbor under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). However, an earlier … Read more
Thank you for 17+ inspiring years, Warren! Warren Vande Stadt has announced his intention to retire on February 14, 2020. Warren has worked in the wireless industry for more than 40 years, with the last 17+ years at Vantage Point Solutions. During his time in the industry, Warren has seen tremendous change from vacuum tube … Read more
Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is now Commercially Available On January 27, 2020, the FCC released its Public Notice, DA 20-110, in which the FCC has announced the completion of initial Commercial Deployment (ICD) phase and the approval of the Spectrum Access System (SAS) services of CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google, and Sony for Commercial Operations. … Read more
FCC Adds Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to January Agenda On January 8th, 2020, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a News Release announcing the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), which would provide $20.4 billion in high-cost universal service support over 10 years, has been added to the January 30th Open Commission meeting. The Report … Read more
Geolocation data for locations built in 2019 are due on March 2. This deadline applies to companies with these funding obligations: You may be missing locations Carriers who may have already collected location information through a process other than in the field geocoding may be missing some locations. For example, some automated geocoding processes lack the … Read more
Congratulations, Eric! The Vantage Point team is thrilled to congratulate Eric Rajchel, of our Engineering team, on successfully passing his Professional Engineering exam. Eric has worked diligently under the mentorship of fellow Vantage Point P.E.s since graduating from South Dakota State University in 2016. During this time he has specialized in aerial engineering, co-authoring a … Read more
Bureau Establishes an Eligible Locations Adjustment Process (ELAP) On November 12, 2019, the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) released an order creating a voluntary process to review the defined deployment obligations (locations and associated support) on a state-by-state basis when the total number of actual locations in the eligible areas is less than the number of … Read more
Lifeline New Low-Income Program Rules The Lifeline program was originally established in 1985 to ensure that low -income consumers had access to affordable, landline telephone service. Today, the Lifeline program provides qualifying low-income consumers discounts on voice or broadband Internet access service, as well as in a bundled service. Currently, qualifying low-income consumers receive a … Read more
Disaster Recovery Planning From blizzards and flooding to wildfires and hurricanes, 2019 has been a year of weather extremes across the United States. Each season brings new challenges and new opportunities. One challenge we hope you have not had to deal with is the occurrence of a natural disaster in your area. We want to … Read more
Court Upholds Majority of Restoring Internet Freedom Order On October 1, 2019, in the case of Mozilla Corporation v. Federal Communications Commission et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals (“the Court”) confirmed a majority of the FCC rule changes included in the 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order (“RIF Order”) which overturned the prior FCC’s 2015 … Read more
USDA Releases Details on the 2nd Round of ReConnect The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released the highly anticipated details for the second round of funding for the ReConnect Program. The ReConnect Program will provide up to $512M in loan and grant funding to assist with building broadband infrastructure in rural areas of … Read more
The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) reverse auction, a $20.4 Billion broadband funding opportunity, will require substantial advance preparation for interested participants Vantage Point Solutions is pleased to introduce the RDOF Concierge Prep Service, a package of information and services for broadband providers interested in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund reverse auction. The Rural Digital … Read more
Order on Reconsideration to be considered on October 25th Open Commission Meeting On October 4, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) issued an Order on Reconsideration regarding Measuring CAF Recipients’ Broadband Performance (the requirement commonly referred to as “CAF Performance Testing” or “Performance Testing”) that clarifies and modifies certain portions and parameters of the Performance … Read more
