Huawei order fallout

The hits from the government keep on coming.

In 2020 Huawei, the Chinese telecom manufacturer, was in the news as the FCC alleged there was or could be spyware imbedded in their equipment. The government directed a “rip and replace” policy to forbid any new purchases and to replace existing installations with safer equipment, presumably uncontrolled by the Chinese. Deadlines were set in ’25 and ’25.

The FCC’s “rip and replace” program is scheduled to officially get underway later this year. The program promises to allocate almost $2 billion in Congressional funding to US network operators so they can replace equipment from Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE with gear from “trusted” suppliers.  lightreading.com (older article)

Now cut to three years later:

The Federal Communications Commission is asking for more funding to help internet service providers rip and replace equipment made by Huawei and ZTE. In a letter to Congress, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel says the government has only allocated $1.9 billion to reimburse providers, which is $3.08 billion less than the $4.98 billion the FCC estimates it will need.

In the letter, Rosenworcel says almost 40 percent of providers in the program can’t afford to replace their equipment without additional money. She adds that several companies may have to shut down if they don’t receive additional funding to replace equipment, potentially leaving some areas without service.

“Moreover, the inability of any Reimbursement Program recipient to fully remove, replace, and dispose of its covered equipment and services would raise national security concerns by leaving insecure equipment and services in our networks,” Rosenworcel writes. The FCC is required to first distribute funds to providers with less than 2 million customers, and it can only cover 39.5 percent of their costs due to the funding shortfall.

Oh, but that resupply dock we are blowing $320,000,000 on for the Palestinians is coming along swimmingly.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work"