Page 134 - SAMENA Trends - September 2019

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

from the services associated with the Arab Emirates for sharing the names of on the GCC e-government portal. They
framework agreements, such as increasing the programs used to measure the actual also discussed the system of identity
the number of consultancy hours and free consumption of products and services. verification in the GCC countries, the
training courses, reducing the operational The meeting also discussed the integration service of establishment and management
cost and localizing the services provided. of the common e-services in the GCC of commercial activities owned by GCC
Additionally, it discussed the investment countries through the GCC e-government nationals, the service of navigating through
revenues of the framework agreements network on a unified platform to be defined e-portals, the exchange of traffic violations
and accompanying services. The in each of the GCC countries, and the in the GCC countries, and the retirement
participating members thanked the United addition of the agreed e-services links and pension services in the GCC countries.

FCC Proposes $950 Million for U.S. Virgin Island, Puerto Rico Broadband

Fund

The FCC said that it will vote later this month on a proposal to make
$950 million available to rebuild broadband networks that were
“devastated” by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. According to
a press briefing by FCC officials, the plans – spearheaded by FCC
Chairman Ajit Pai — call for separate funds for mobile and fixed
service and for a separate Virgin Island and Puerto Rico broadband
fund. Officials said plans include shifting funding from traditional
high-cost Universal Service Fund (USF) programs for the islands,
which would be phased out. Additional funding also would be
provided through the USF high-cost program, the officials said.
They noted that the program is funded by service providers but
did not specify whether the extra funding would come by reducing
funding for other program recipients or increasing the contribution
factor used to calculate service provider contributions.
FCC Puerto Rico Broadband Fund
The FCC proposal for Puerto Rico would allocate $510 million over U.S. Virgin Islands, Mobile Broadband Fund
10 years for fixed broadband and $254 million over three years Funding for fixed providers in the U.S. Virgin Islands would be
for mobile broadband. The U.S. Virgin Islands would receive $186 awarded in a similar manner, but that territory would be divided
million over 10 years for fixed broadband and $4 million over into just two geographic areas – one including St. Croix and
three years for mobile broadband. Funding for fixed providers in the other including St. Thomas and St. John. Mobile broadband
Puerto Rico would be awarded based on proposals submitted by funding for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands would be
the providers that would consider price, network performance allocated to service providers based on the number of subscribers
and network resiliency and redundancy. Providers would have to the providers served as of June 2017. Providers would be allowed
deploy service supporting speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream to use up to 75% of funding on LTE networks and up to 25% of
and 3 Mbps upstream. Proposals to provide service at either funding for 5G networks supporting speeds of at least 35 Mbps
of two higher speed tiers would be favored, with proposals to downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. The proposal outlined today
provide gigabit speeds having the most favored status, followed appears quite similar to one that Pai made last year. The chairman
by proposals to provide 100 Mbps service. Proposals to provide may have reasoned that with the nation’s attention focused on the
lower-latency service also would be favored, as would proposals current Hurricane Dorian, this would be a good time to formalize
to provide more reliable service by, for example, using buried the proposal for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Today’s
rather than aerial fiber. In addition, proposals requesting a lower FCC press release notes that the proposed $950 million for Puerto
level of funding overall would have priority. Proposals would be Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands is in addition to $130 million in
made to provide service throughout a municipio, of which there extra funding that the commission previously provided to restore
are 78 in Puerto Rico. Providers would be required to make service hurricane-damaged networks in those islands since 2017.
available to every home and business within a municipio.

134 SEPTEMBER 2019