Huawei: FCC Can't Block USF Funding

Chinese telecom Huawei has again told the Federal Communications Commission that the commission's proposal to exclude some Chinese companies' technology--Huawei and ZTE-- from Universal Service Fund broadband subsidy support is both legally and factually deficient. Government contractors can't buy equipment from Chinese telecoms ZTE or Huawei as part of those contracts, and must submit a plan for phasing out the use of that equipment from its systems. That came with President Donald Trump's signing on Aug 13 of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act and after the companies were called out by top US intelligence officials as tied to the Chinese government and thus a national security threat. Huawei says that the Act's prohibition is on government loan or grant programs, not the USF subsidy, and that even if it did, "it would be arbitrary and capricious for the Commission to rely upon it as a basis for its proposed rule banning expenditure of any USF support funds on equipment and services manufactured by specified companies."