US rural carriers, scrambling to replace Huawei and ZTE gear, now face supply chain delays
- Officials at small telecoms networks say disruptions further complicate meeting the US government mandate to remove Huawei and ZTE systems
- The order stemmed from fear that those systems contain spyware to transfer US data to Beijing
Blue Mountain Networks, a regional broadband provider based in Oregon, received unwelcome news from its supply chain contractor a few weeks ago.
The contractor, which helps make sure the company receives switches and other gear on time, explained in an email that wireless products manufacturers had sharply increased their prices – some by as much as 40 per cent.
Factories had been hit by unprecedented disruptions, causing prices for raw materials to jump, it said. And with cargo containers stranded at ports for months on end because of truck driver shortages, the suppliers were being charged US$100 per container a day.
The complication turned a logistical headache – which stemmed from US government efforts to rid the country of telecoms infrastructure made by China’s Huawei Technologies and ZTE – into something even worse.
“These are uncharted territories for our industry, for our world, and we’re all being affected,” the email to Blue Mountain president Joseph Franell said, adding that the chaos was the worst the firm had seen in decades.
Now that “the ripping-and-replacing funds” are available, it added, “it is only going to get worse”.
