Ever since the FCC designated Huawei and ZTE as national threats to security, the US has been working on removing their telecom equipment from its network. However, it appears that the US telecom regulator would still need a few more billion dollars.
According to a Reuters report, the Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, Jessica Rosenworcel, stated in a letter to Senator Maria Cantwell that “To fund all reasonable and supported cost estimates the Reimbursement Program will require 4.98 billion US Dollars, reflecting a current shortfall of 3.08 billion US Dollars.” For those unaware, the country is looking to remove equipment from the two major telecommunication equipment makers after the FCC flagged them as threats to US national security.
Any telecom operators failing to remove networking gear from these Chinese brands would be removed from an 8.3 billion US Dollar government fund to buy new replacement equipment. But so far, the replacement policy has only managed to appropriate 1.9 billion US Dollars, which has raised concerns regarding how effectively the removal program is being carried out.
Jessica Rosenworcel further added that “Absent an additional appropriation, the Commission will apply the prioritization scheme Congress specified.” She also said that the Commission will begin the reimbursement claims “as allocations are issued in the coming days.” At the moment, the companies are also not required to complete the rip and replace process of networking equipment until they receive their reimbursement.
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