US Senate approves bill giving $1 billion to rural telcos to replace Huawei equipment

The US Senate voted to pass a bill restricting the use of federal funding for purchases from Chinese telecom giant Huawei. This bill had been passed in the House during December 2019. The bill also gives $1 billion to rural telecom operators to replace Huawei equipment that would have previously been acquired. Bipartisan lawmakers in a joint statement said “The existence of Huawei’s technology in our networks represents an immense threat to America’s national and economic security. This bipartisan bill will help communities across the country by bolstering efforts to keep our communications supply chain safe from foreign adversaries and other dangerous actors, while helping small and rural providers remove and replace suspect network equipment,”. Huawei has argued against this legislation claiming that customers and businesses in these rural areas will negatively impacted as the equipment change will be slower than projected and be more costly than budgeted for.