FCC allegedly demands more funds to remove Huawei/ZTE equipment from US

News regarding the Huawei-US war points out that the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is now demanding even more funds to rip and replace Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE network equipment from the US telecom cores.

The news reflects the ‘rip and replace’ program that is currently going on in foreign countries. It refers to the removal of the major Chinese firms’ equipment from the telecommunications core in the name of security risks and privacy exposure factors.

On Thursday, the FCC said that it requires additional funding from the US government for the removal of Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese network equipment from market.

It further adds that while the estimated cost of this process seems $4.98 billion, the authorities only funded $1.9 billion, which is not sufficient to move ahead.

The FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel mentioned the reason behind the urgent funding and said that a few carriers foresee consequences due to the lack of full funding. Hence it is important to have powerful financial backing at the moment.

FCC demands funds to remove Huawei equipment (Image Credits: Huawei)

This is not the first time that additional fund demand has been raised by regulators. In October last year, the Biden administration asked for $3.1 billion for the same rip-and-replace program. Though the US government didn’t respond on the subject.

FCC started the removal of Chinese telecoms equipment from the US floor since 2019. It initially allocates funds to applicants with two million or fewer customers with 39.5% of replacement costs. After partial funding, the telecom operators began the replacement of Chinese equipment by the deadline – February 04, 2025.

Problems for US Telecoms:

Being a compatible and efficient network equipment, many US network carriers are now facing obstacles in removing Huawei and ZTE from their core network. Apart from efficiency, funds have become a new problem for American telecom operators.

Jessica Rosenworcel says that many telecoms serve as the only mobile broadband service provider in some areas. Thus a complete shutdown may wipe out the only provider in some regions. On the other hand, failure to complete removal of Chinese equipment would question security in the US.

(Source – Reuters)