America’s wireless network infrastructure includes at least 24,000 pieces of Huawei or ZTE equipment spanning about 8,400 locations, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The massive reimbursement program initiated by the agency to offset the costs associated with removing, replacing, and disposing of network equipment deemed a national security threat illustrates in the clearest manner to date how extensive the Chinese vendors’ equipment reaches into the nation’s critical infrastructure.

Costs for this effort have skyrocketed from an initial estimate of $700 million in 2019 to at least $5.6 billion, reflecting a 700% increase in less than two years. 

The FCC, after notifying Congress of the latest cost resulting from a federal mandate to remove all Chinese vendor equipment from U.S. networks, published a list of 162 network operators, enterprises, health care providers, libraries, and educational institutions initially designated as eligible for the program. The agency received 181 applications total.

Each applicant included estimated costs associated with the removal and replacement of Huawei and ZTE equipment, and the variance between costs is significant. Part of that is due to a change last year that expanded eligibility from providers and organizations with up to 2 million subscribers to include networks that serve up to 10 million customers.

Viaero Wireless, a regional operator serving rural customers in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming, requested $1.19 billion, according to FCC data compiled by open RAN vendor Mavenir and published by Light Reading. At the lower end of the spectrum, the Northern Cambria School District in rural Pennsylvania requested $14,400. 

Funding for the gap between a previously approved sum of $1.9 billion in government funding in late 2020 to the new $5.6 billion total has yet to be approved by Congress. Money was formally allocated for the rip-and-replace program when the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act became law in the early weeks of the COVID-19 crisis.

Smaller operators get first priority for funding, according to a prioritization scheme outlined by the FCC. However, if those priorities can’t be sufficiently met, program participants could receive just a third of their requested funds under a prorated measure. And operators with more than 2 million customers might be completely on their own.

The FCC’s deadline for acting on all submitted applications is set for June 15, 2022. The agency is now tasked with evaluating the reasonableness of roughly 439,000 separate cost estimates contained in 162 applications, the agency wrote in a public notice.

Applications determined to be “materially deficient” will have 15 days to resolve the issue before their application is denied, according to the FCC. Finally, once funds are allocated to approved applicants, all Huawei and ZTE gear must be completely removed, replaced, and disposed of within one year.