Pierluigi Paganini March 14, 2020

This week US President Donald Trump signed a bill that assigns $1 billion to small telecom providers for replacing equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE.

US President Donald Trump continues its battle against the Chinese telco giants Huawei and ZTE, this week he has signed a bill that assigns $1 billion to small telecom providers for replacing equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE.

Early March, US lawmakers passed the legislation that plans to give $1 billion to telecom carriers to “rip and replace” equipment from Chinese tech giants Huawei and ZTE.

The measure was approved by the Senate that passed to the White House for the final signature from President Donald Trump that arrived this week.

The bill also prohibits the spending of federal funds for the purchase or maintenance of telecom equipment from “untrusted” suppliers.

To bill remarks that the equipment from the Chinese companies poses a national security risk for firms with fewer than two million customers.

“Telecommunications equipment from certain foreign adversaries poses a significant threat to our national security, economic prosperity, and the future of US leadership in advanced wireless technology,” said Senator Roger Wicker.

“By establishing a ‘rip and replace’ program, this legislation will provide meaningful safeguards for our communications networks and more secure connections for Americans.”

In November, U.S. Federal Communications Commission cut off government funding for equipment from the Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE due to security concerns. The Federal Communications Commission also requested to assign subsidies to the American companies that will replace any equipment from the Chinese firms that they already have in place.

“The FCC voted unanimously Friday to bar U.S. telecommunications providers from using government subsidies to buy equipment from Huawei or ZTE. The FCC’s order mostly affects small, rural companies, as larger U.S. carriers do not use equipment from those Chinese companies.” reads the post published by the Associated Press.

The bill signed by President Trump is aimed at telecom providers with fewer than 2 million customers.

“Using untrustworthy vendors to build communications infrastructure threatens our security by exposing our networks to actors who are potentially influenced by foreign entities.” reads a statement published by the White House.

“The administration will not risk subjecting America’s critical telecommunications infrastructure to companies that are controlled by authoritarian governments or foreign adversaries,”

According to the Associated Press, Donald Morrissey, a Huawei spokesman, said the bill was an “unrealistic attempt to fix what isn’t broken” and will hurt local consumers.

“This legislation remains considerably underfunded, will take longer than anticipated to fulfill and will put at risk some of Huawei’s customers, who operate in the most under-served areas,” Morrissey said.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Trump, Huawei)

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