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…
Continue ReadingLimited 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)….
Continue ReadingFCC’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…
Continue ReadingDigital 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…
Continue ReadingCitizens 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….
Continue ReadingFCC 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…
Continue ReadingGeolocation data for locations built in 2019 are due on March 2. This deadline applies to companies with these funding obligations: CAF Phase II A-CAM, Revised A-CAM I, and A-CAM II CAF BLS Rural Broadband Experiments (RBE) Alaska Plan You may be missing locations. Carriers who may have already collected location information through a process other…
Continue ReadingCongratulations, 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…
Continue ReadingBureau 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…
Continue ReadingLifeline 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…
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