The US Federal Communications Commission said an AWS-3 wireless spectrum auction raised more than $3.5 billion.

Up to $3.3 billion will repay Treasury funds borrowed for the agency’s “Rip and Replace” program, which removes Huawei and ZTE telecom equipment from US wireless networks.

The program reimburses eligible communications providers with 10 million or fewer customers for reasonable costs of removing, replacing, and disposing of Huawei and ZTE equipment and services acquired on or before June 30, 2020.

The FCC had estimated the work would cost $4.98 billion, compared with the $1.9 billion Congress appropriated. Before the auction proceeds became available, the agency borrowed about $3 billion from the Treasury to fully fund the program.

The FCC said last week that 42% of federal funding recipients had completed replacing and disposing of all covered Chinese equipment.

🔗 Source: Reuters

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