UPDATE Americans were shocked when a Chinese surveillance balloon flew over the U.S. last year. However, the Chinese Communist Party has been spying on America for more than a decade “in a much subtler way,” using U.S. cell towers, according to Senators Deb Fischer (R-NE) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO).
In an opinion piece published in The Hill, they point to Chinese-owned Huawei and ZTE selling their telecom network gear at cheap prices. “Over time, this has enabled Huawei and ZTE to significantly expand their equipment’s presence in networks throughout the rural United States. For providers in rural areas operating on slimmer margins, cheap gear was a welcome option, and the risks associated with that gear were not yet well known,” they write.
But these states are also home to U.S. military bases and nuclear missile silos. American intelligence agencies identified a pattern: “communications providers were installing Chinese-made equipment on mobile wireless towers right next to American military assets,” state Fischer and John Hickenlooper, in The Hill.
Approximately 24,000 pieces of equipment still operate in 8,400 locations near U.S. homes, small businesses, interstate highways, and university campuses. Nearly all of the 85 companies received approval by the FCC for costs to “Rip and Replace” the equipment deemed untrusted by the U.S. government.
But Inside Towers reported the FCC reimbursement program has a $3 billion shortfall. If smaller telecoms don’t get their full reimbursement to remove the Chinese gear, “they’ll either refrain from ripping it out or will be forced to shut down parts or all of their networks. And this is already beginning,” say Fischer and Hickenlooper.
The senators point to their bill, the Defend Our Networks Act, which would remove Chinese network gear and “secure rural communications without network disruptions — all using funding already expended by Congress,” they note. The Act would use roughly three percent of unobligated emergency COVID-relief funds to address the budget shortfall in Rip & Replace, Inside Towers reported in April. Now, the lawmakers urge passage of their legislation “before it’s too late.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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