US plans to bar Huawei and ZTE from $8.5 billion equipment fund

Huawei is one of the biggest 5G equipment makers in the world,
but the US considers the
Chinese company a cybersecurity threat.
(Picture: Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

Companies using hardware from the Chinese telecom equipment makers won't be eligible to receive money from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund.

The US telecommunications regulator plans to vote in November to designate China’s Huawei and ZTE as national security risks, barring their US rural carrier customers from tapping an $8.5 billion government fund to purchase equipment or services.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also plans to propose requiring those carriers to remove and replace equipment from such designated companies, FCC officials said on Monday.

At a meeting set for Nov. 19, the FCC said it plans to vote to ask carriers how much it would cost to remove and replace Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp from existing networks and to establish a reimbursement program to offset the costs of removing the equipment.



by Reuters.
Full story at Abacus News.