President Trump signed two bills into law Monday, aimed at improving both 5G security and broadband availability.
According to a statement by the Whitehouse, the Secure 5G and Beyond Act of 2020, calls on the “President to develop a strategy to: (1) ensure the security of next generation mobile telecommunications systems and infrastructure in the United States; and (2) assist allies and strategic partners in maximizing the security of next generation mobile telecommunications systems and infrastructure.”
This has been an ongoing concern for U.S. officials, as Huawei is one of the top three network equipment providers and is widely believed to be the leader in scale and technology. The U.S. has banned the firm from participating in its own networks, and engaged in a campaign to pressures allies to do the same over concerns the company is a conduit for Beijing to spy on governments and countries throughout the world. Throughout the process, the U.S. has framed the debate about network security as a national security issue. As a result, it’s not surprising Trump signed the bill into law.
The second bill, the “Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act or the Broadband DATA Act” is aimed at improving the accuracy of information about availability of broadband services. To do that, it “requires the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules relating to the collection of data with respect to the availability of broadband services.”
The signing of the bills was met with bipartisan praise. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce issues the following statement:
“The bills signed into law today by the President are critical to ensuring that all Americans can access broadband and that our networks are secure and trusted.”