Cybersecurity Policy Report, Summit Seeks Clarity Amid ‘Rip-and-Replace' Funding Shortfall, (Apr 3, 2024)

By Jeff Williams

Citing the lack of additional funding being made available by Congress for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (also known as the “rip and replace” program), Summit Ridge Group LLC has asked the FCC to provide guidance on several “critical” issues for participants to “wind down” their efforts to rip, replace, and dispose (RRD) of untrustworthy communications gear.

“As the Commission is aware, most [program] participants are simply not in a position to fund their RRD projects themselves,” Summit said in an ex parte filing. “Given the repeated failures to secure additional funding, it is incumbent on participants and their advisors to develop contingency plans for the possibility that no further funding will be forthcoming.”

Due to a shortfall in funding for the program, participants are only receiving pro rata reimbursements of just under 40% of eligible costs (CPR, March 22).

Requiring a “rapid, unplanned shutdown” of participants’ networks because they cannot complete the rip-and-replace process would "not only cause disruption for customers, employees, and investors, but it may cut off the only communications service in some regions, creating significant public safety risks and increasing the digital divide,” Summit said.

Among other things, the company asked the FCC to provide additional guidance about what “ongoing responsibilities, if any,” participants would have if they ran out of funds and couldn’t complete their projects.

In addition, Summit asked whether participants that ran out of funding should shut down portions of their networks that still had equipment the FCC was requiring to be replaced and whether the Commission had a preference for how participants spent their remaining funds.

Summit also asked the FCC to advise participants about how to address various tax and accounting questions related to the program and what “information and process requirements” the Commission had for participants that needed to shut down their rip-and-replace projects.

News: FederalLegislation DataSecurity