Washington, Mar 13 (AP) President Donald Trump on Thursday signed into law a bill that provides USD 1 billion to help small telecom providers replace equipment made by China's Huawei and ZTE.

The US government considers the Chinese companies a security risk and has pushed its allies not to use Huawei equipment in next-generation cellular networks, known as 5G. Both companies have denied that China uses their products for spying.

The Federal Communications Commission has already voted to bar US phone companies from using government subsidies for equipment from the two Chinese companies.

This bill affects mostly small, rural companies, because the major US network providers don't use the Chinese equipment.

The White House said that using untrustworthy vendors to build communications infrastructure threatens national security by exposing networks to actors who are potentially influenced by foreign entities.

The legislation creates a reimbursement program that small telecom providers can use when removing and replacing equipment manufactured by entities deemed to pose unacceptable national security risks. The bill is aimed at telecom providers with fewer than 2 million customers.

“The administration will not risk subjecting America's critical telecommunications infrastructure to companies that are controlled by authoritarian governments or foreign adversaries," the White House said in a statement. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)