Secure and Trusted Telecommunications Networks Act
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President Trump signs bill to help rural carriers replace Huawei gear
The US government is about to help rural carriers give Chinese telecom equipment the boot. President Trump has signed the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (the Secure and Trusted Telecommunications Networks Act in the Senate), mandating that US telecoms rip out and replace any "suspect foreign network equipment" -- effectively, Huawei and ZTE equipment. It tasks the FCC with setting up a compensation program so that rural providers can afford to remove the hardware, improes security information sharing to prevent future uses and bars networks from using FCC-administered funds to buy equipment from companies representing a "national security risk."
Senate approves $1 billion budget to help rural carriers replace Huawei gear
The US Senate has unanimously approved a bill that would give rural carriers access to a $1 billion fund meant to help them remove and replace Huawei gear. According to The Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch, the Senate has voted to send the bill to the President a couple of months after the House approved its own version. If Trump signs it -- and a previous Politico report said top administration figures expressed their support for it -- then 40 rural carriers currently using equipment from Chinese tech giants like Huawei and ZTE will have access to the fund.
