From 2020, Huawei and ZTEManufacturers identified as national security threats to the United States, and asked U.S. telecom operators to ban the two companies from providing network equipment, and to allocate funds to assist telecom operators in applying for equipment replacement. Earlier, the Chairperson of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Jessica Rosenworcel, revealed that U.S. telecom operators had proposed a total ofUp to $56 billion in grant applications.
In fact, before this, many telecom operators said that it would cost more to replace the network communication equipment provided by Huawei and ZTE. The reason is that small local telecom operators mostly purchase relatively low-priced network communication equipment from Huawei and ZTE. If they want to replace it with network communication equipment of other brands, they must spend more money.
In addition, as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission plans to allocate funds to help telecom operators replace Huawei and ZTE Netcom equipment, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile will naturally follow suit and submit applications, bringing the total amount of applied subsidies to as much as $56 billion.
Initially, a subsidy of US$16 billion was proposed, but later the estimated funding was expanded to US$18 billion, and more than US$19 billion was used to help telecom operators replace network equipment. However, the current amount of funding requested clearly exceeds the original expectations of the Federal Communications Commission, so the amount of funding requested will inevitably be reduced through subsequent review.
Jessica Rosenworcel said she will work closely with the U.S. Congress to ensure that there is sufficient funding to help subsidize telecommunications companies to replace network equipment and meet national security requirements.
We've received over 181 applications from carriers who have developed plans to remove and replace equipment in their networks that pose a national security threat. https://t.co/BTIgP6yCT7
— Jessica Rosenworcel (@JRosenworcelFCC) February 4, 2022
