A US spectrum auction just raised $3.5B to pay for ripping out Huawei
The Federal Communications Commission has raised about $3.5 billion from an auction of mid-band wireless spectrum, with most of the proceeds earmarked to fund the removal of Chinese-made telecom equipment from US networks.
The agency’s long-running “rip and replace” programme, which reimburses smaller carriers for swapping out gear from Huawei and ZTE, has spent years short of the money Congress promised it, and the auction was the mechanism chosen to close the gap.
Up to $3.3 billion of the proceeds will go towards repaying a Treasury loan that has been keeping the rip-and-replace effort alive.
The programme was established by a 2021 law with $1.9 billion in funding, but carriers submitted reimbursement requests closer to $5 billion, leaving a shortfall the FCC estimated at roughly $3 billion.
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