April 13, 2023
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has failed to force U.S. carriers to remove Huawei equipment from their networks under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
The government claims that the technology is being used to spy on Americans, but some argue that this is ironic considering that the U.S. spies on everyone and has promoted backdoors in key telecom goods across the world. U.S. internet service providers (ISPs) that have begun to remove Chinese equipment from their networks report that the government is only providing 40% of the funds required to finish the operation, which includes destroying the equipment to prevent its reuse.
Congress appropriated nearly $1.9 billion for its Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program last year. This program, often called as the “rip and replace” effort, compels participants to replace Huawei and ZTE equipment with “trusted” equipment from firms like as Ericsson, Nokia, and Mavenir. However, hundreds of smaller U.S. network operators interested in the program feel that much more financing – around $3.1 billion more – is required to finish the task.
The sources for this piece include an article in TechDirt.
