Ever since the US declared Huawei and ZTE a threat to national security due to alleged espionage, the cost of removing their equipment grows. They imposed sanctions on them in 2019., and there has been an ongoing campaign to completely get rid of them from American soil. It now seems that the US needs more money to complete such a job.
In 2021, the FCC was granted $1.9 billion in funding to help carriers replace Huawei and ZTE equipment with alternatives. Two years later, it turns out that the US needs more money, i.e. another 3.08 billion dollars to bring the project to an end.
Why does the US need more money to complete the job?
If additional costs do not appear in the meantime, the US will spend a total of 5 billion dollars on infrastructure replacement. However, due to the lack of funds, the FCC decided to set priorities. The first in the line for the compensation are carriers with more than two million users.
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Apart from the fact that the US needs more money to complete the job, they are also putting pressure on European countries to do the same. So far, only Sweden and the UK have obeyed. The latter predicted that the complete replacement of Huawei infrastructure will last until 2027. Other countries continue to do business with Chinese companies, and currently, 41% of European 4G infrastructure relies on Huawei technology.
What about other countries?
Since the US needs more money to get rid of Huawei, some EU countries decided to go their own way. Germany, Poland, Portugal, and Austria continue to use Huawei equipment for the 5G network as well.
Berlin says that they will decide for themselves whose equipment they will use. This means that they’ll not give in to American pressure. It was recently reported that the operator Vodafone in Germany alone would spend 2.8 billion euros to replace Huawei’s equipment.
