Bipartisan 5G bill introduced

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Friday introduced legislation to financially boost American fifth generation, or 5G, wireless technologies following concerns that Chinese telecommunications groups such as Huawei or ZTE pose national security threats.

The USA Telecommunications Act would set aside $750 million within a grant program overseen by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to help support the deployment and use of 5G networks in the U.S.

The bill would also establish an advisory committee that would include the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other federal agencies as well as representatives from the public and private sectors to advise on the grant funding.

Sponsors of the bill include House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.), along with Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Doris Matsui (D-Calif.).

“The ‘USA Telecommunications Act of 2020’ will encourage more competition in the network equipment market and help lower costs for trusted equipment over the long term,” the sponsors said Friday in a joint statement. “By promoting a more competitive market of trusted alternatives to suspect 5G equipment, we can more easily secure our critical networks and bring like-minded countries with us.”

The legislation is meant to provide funding to counter the influence of Chinese telecom groups like Huawei and ZTE on 5G systems. There has been strong bipartisan pushback against the two companies from both Capitol Hill and the White House over the past year, with the Department of Commerce essentially blacklisting Huawei by adding it to its “entity list” in 2019.