Huawei will be wiped out folks as Trump signs bill to displace telecom equipment
14 March, 2020
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed into law a bill that delivers $1 billion to help small telecom providers replace equipment created by China's Huawei and ZTE.
The government considers the Chinese companies a security risk and has pushed its allies never to use Huawei equipment in 5G cellular networks. Both companies have denied that China uses their products for spying.
The Federal Communications Commission has recently voted to bar US phone companies from using government subsidies for equipment from both Chinese companies. This bill affects mostly small, rural companies, as the major US network providers avoid the Chinese equipment.
The White House said that using untrustworthy vendors to build communications infrastructure threatens national security by exposing networks to actors who are potentially influenced by foreign entities.
The legislation creates a reimbursement programme that small telecom providers may use when removing and replacing equipment created by entities deemed to pose unacceptable national security risks. The bill is aimed at telecom providers with less than 2 million customers.
"The administration won't risk subjecting America's critical telecommunications infrastructure to companies that are managed by authoritarian governments or foreign adversaries," the White House said in a statement.
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