Huawei helped bring Internet to small-town America. Now its equipment has to go.

About a dozen small rural carriers have purchased gear over the years from Huawei or ZTE, Chinese companies that have raised security concerns, according to their trade group, the Rural Wireless Association. The carriers often bought the equipment with US government subsidies intended to help bring Internet service to sparsely populated areas that larger telecom companies deemed unprofitable. Replacing the gear would cost roughly $1 billion, the association says, and Pine Telephone Company in Oklahoma and other small companies are calling for federal funding to help. “If not, rural America takes a hit," said Pine general manager Jerry Whisenhunt, adding that it would take Pine years and tens of millions of dollars to strip its Huawei equipment off more than 140 cell towers. Pine spent $32 million to buy a new system from Huawei, borrowing about half the money from the Rural Utilities Service, or RUS, an arm of the Agriculture Department that helps finance infrastructure projects. RUS, which also provided grant funds to Pine, signed off on Pine’s contract with Huawei, Whisenhunt said. RUS at the time generally required funding recipients to buy American gear but provided waivers “based on cost or unavailability,” the USDA said. 

Whisenhunt says he trusts the government’s view that Huawei is a security risk but also believes the restrictions on doing business with Huawei could prove catastrophic for his business and the community. “I believe the United States has the best spies, the best spooks,” Whisenhunt said from a windowless control room at Pine’s 1960s-era headquarters, where racks of Huawei computers direct the region’s phone calls and Internet searches. “If they say it, I’ve got to believe it. But if I rip this out, all these people here are not going to have Internet.”