Ever since the national security concerns and followed blacklisting of ZTE and Huawei, there have been urges by the government to stop telecom carriers from making use of the Chinese equipment. This change has not been that effective since equipment from ZTE and Huawei is used quite widely. Now, the FCC is coming with a proposal that would legally require telecom companies to cease the use of Huawei or ZTE equipment for a variety of purposes. The companies would have to replace the existing equipment range as well.
What makes this FCC proposal different is that it has some contingency options itself. For instance, telecom operators were asked to shift from Huawei and ZTE, but no financial support was provided. This had created a situation where most telecoms were not ready to make the shift. According to the FCC proposal, the state would be providing financial support so that telecom carriers can make the change. Also, the proposal has emphasized the fact that companies like ZTE and Huawei are threat to national security and that US-based telecoms should not purchase equipment from these companies in the future.
It should be noted that the warnings from FCC are grounded on some factual claims. For instance, Ajit Pai is strong on the belief that companies like ZTE and Huawei would be forced to install backdoors on their devices and telecom equipment so that data could be transferred from the US to China. This, as it is obvious, could be problematic to the national security concerns in the long run. The financial support is a great offer since a lot of companies, especially the local telecom operators, choose to go for Huawei or ZTE equipment since they are priced very affordably.
This is just a proposal and an approval is required for it to move forward.
