Page 95 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Minister, Ministry of Communications
& Digital Economy, Nigeria;
Mercedes Aramendia, President,
Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de
Comunicaciones (URSEC), Uruguay;
Jay Carney, Senior Vice President,
Global Corporate Affairs, Amazon
Web Services; Patricia Cooper, Vice
President, Satellite Government
Affairs SpaceX; Julie Garcia Welch,
Vice President, Government Affairs &
Public Policy, Asia Pacific, Qualcomm;
Eugene Kaspersky, CEO, Kaspersky Lab;
Nguyen Manh Hung, Minister, Ministry
of Information and Communications,
Viet Nam; Paola Vega Castillo, Minister,
transformed regulatory priorities or the 5G era: demand, deployment, and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y
business opportunities; and company disquiet; and Cybersecurity and privacy Telecomunicaciones, Costa Rica;
priorities to help accelerate economic solutions: safeguarding our digital Chris Wellise, Chief Sustainability
recovery. world. Officer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise;
• Forum sessions: Convening industry • Expert insights: Ministerial Roundtable Wojciech Wiewiórowski, European Data
experts from across the digital and Forum webinar sessions will Protection Supervisor and more.
ecosystem, forum webinars will focus feature top name speakers from A global online tech exhibition including
on the policies, technologies and trends across governments and industries virtual national pavilions showcasing
driving the digital economy in sessions including: H.E. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, innovations from Cuba, Cambodia, Finland,
on Bridging the broadband gap: Prime Minister, Viet Nam; Iyad Al Khatib, Japan, South Africa and Zambia amongst
stimulating public and private sectors Minister, Ministry of communication others, key ICT players and high-growth
to connect the unconnected; Entering and technology, Syria; Isa Ali Ibrahim, tech SMEs.

FCC Unveils Unbundling Overhaul

The Federal Communications last-mile lines are used primarily by used to provide legacy voice service and
Commission (FCC) has confirmed that business customers and are being have no broadband service capability.
it has eliminated a number of legacy replaced by higher speed, packet- Given the shift away from legacy voice
unbundling and resale rules ‘where based services sold by incumbent local services to IP-and wireless-based voice
they stifle technology transitions and exchange carriers (ILECs), competitive services offered by multiple providers,
broadband deployment’. The rules date local exchange carriers (CLECs), the Order removes unbundling
back to the Telecommunications Act of cable providers and other intermodal obligations for narrowband voice-grade
1996, which required monopoly local competitors. The Order ends these loops nationwide.
telephone companies to make portions unbundling requirements in areas with • Dark Fiber Transport. These services
of their networks and services available sufficient evidence of competition but provide a connection between phone
to competitors at regulated rates. The keeps them in place in areas that lack companies’ local wire centers. The Order
watchdog notes that the Order (dated sufficient competition. eliminates unbundling requirements
27 October) builds upon previous action • DS0 Loops. These network elements for dark fiber transport originating or
to adjust those rules to keep pace with are typically used to provide both voice terminating from a wire center within a
advances in the marketplace since and broadband service using various half-mile of competitive fiber networks.
the passage of the 1996 Act, ‘as it has DSL technologies. The Order eliminates The Order also discontinues, subject
shifted from one dominated by monopoly unbundling requirements for these to a three-year transition period, a
incumbents to one characterized by loops in densely populated areas, which requirement that ILECs make available
vigorous, intermodal competition’. The tend to have more competitive options, for resale their retail legacy telecoms
Order eliminates rules requiring unbundling but preserves unbundling requirements services at cost-based rates. These
of the following network elements, subject for DS0 loops in less densely populated services are predominantly used by
to certain conditions and multiyear areas. CLECs to provide legacy voice services
transition periods: • Legacy Narrowband Voice-Grade to business and government customers.
• DS1 and DS3 Loops. These legacy Loops. These network elements are

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