By Daniel Frankel, Multichannel News, 9-4-20
The price for extracting from U.S. networks equipment and software from Chinese vendors deemed security threats by the Trump Administration will come in at around $1.8 billion, according to figures released Friday by the FCC.
The agency also said that most of that money, $1.6 billion of it, could be eligible for reimbursement to U.S. network operators from the federal government.
In June, the FCC deemed technology provided by Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE to be security threats. The agency blocked access to the Universal Service Fund to any U.S. network operator that didn’t comply with the edict to remove Huawei and ZTE tech from their networks and not to buy any more of it again.
The mandate burdened network operators with the task of replacing relatively inexpensive technology from the Chinese vendors with gear and software from pricier vendors—essentially buying the same tech twice, and paying substantially more the second time around. » Read More