ANSI Seeks Comments for Coordinated Response on the National Strategy to Secure 5G Implementation Plan

Input Requested by June 12

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) strongly encourages its members and constituents to contribute to ANSI's coordinated response to the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)'s request for comment to inform the development of an implementation plan for the National Strategy to Secure 5G.

In March, the president signed into law the Secure 5G and Beyond Act of 2020 (Act), which requires the development of a strategy to ensure the security of next generation wireless communications systems and infrastructure. As ANSI previously reported, efforts to support this effort will include federal interagency coordination, participation, and influence in standards-setting organizations.

Of particular note to the standardization community are the following questions outlined in NTIA's request for comments:

• How can the U.S. Government best encourage and support U.S. private sector participation in standards development for 5G technologies?
• How can the United States (U.S.) Government best facilitate the domestic rollout of 5G technologies and the development of a robust domestic 5G commercial ecosystem (e.g., equipment manufacturers, chip manufacturers, software developers, cloud providers, system integrators, network providers)?
• How can the U.S. Government best foster and promote the research, development, testing, and evaluation of new technologies and architectures?
• How should the U.S. Government best promote 5G vendor diversity and foster market competition?
• How can the U.S. Government best lead the responsible international development and deployment of 5G technology and promote the availability of secure and reliable equipment and services in the market?
• What constitutes a useful and verifiable security control regime? What role should security requirements play, and what mechanisms can be used to ensure these security requirements are adopted?
• Are there stakeholder-driven approaches that the U.S. Government should consider to promote adoption of policies, requirements, guidelines, and procurement strategies necessary to establish secure, effective, and reliable 5G infrastructure?

The document also encompasses facilitating domestic rollout, in which standards and interoperability are key, and stakeholder-driven approaches that the U.S. government should consider.

For more information about the request for comment, including how to submit comments directly to NTIA, visit NTIA's website here.

To contribute to the coordinated ANSI response, please submit your comments to Mary Saunders, ANSI's vice president for government relations by COB June 12, 2020.