On Wednesday, members of the US Congress took another step to urge Britain to reverse its decision to allow China’s Huawei Technologies Co to build portions of the UK’s next generation 5G networks.
Republican senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio have proposed legislation requiring the US Foreign Investment Commission to review Britain’s place on the “white list” of foreign investment, which exempts certain Australian, Canadian and British companies from the increase in the United States. control of their foreign investments.
A US Senate committee heard testimony from Nokia and Ericsson on Wednesday on how US rural operators can trade equipment from Huawei and ZTE, also from China, to comply with recently released federal rules.
Republican President Donald Trump signed a decree in May banning U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by companies known to pose a risk to national security, such as Huawei.
In November, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) followed up with a unanimous vote to designate Huawei and ZTE as national security risks, effectively preventing their rural customers in the United States from drawing $ 8.5 billion in government funding. dollars to buy equipment.
Senator Roger Wicker, Republican chairman of the Commerce Committee, said that “We must do more to strengthen our own network defenses against pirates and state-sponsored actors, especially in rural and underserved communities in our country. This effort will require the development of a comprehensive strategy to secure the telecommunications supply chain. “
Congress passed legislation to reimburse telecommunications providers with less than two million customers who replace equipment on their networks deemed to pose a risk to national security last week.
Steven Barry, who heads the Competitive Carriers Association, said at the Wednesday hearing that rural carriers “Essentially trying to rebuild the plane during flight” by removing and replacing network equipment.
Huawei announced that congressional legislation was “Significantly underfunded, would take longer than expected and could endanger some of our customers, who serve the most underserved areas.”
Source: https://gadgets.ndtv.com/telecom/news/us-lawmakers-seek-to-step-up-pressure-on-uk-to-reverse-huawei-5g-decision-2190278
