Senators seek to rid Nebraska cell towers of Chinese equipment

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Two senators in the Nebraska Legislature want to incentivize phone carriers to remove Chinese-made equipment from cell towers.

They held a press conference Tuesday on Legislative Bill 63, which would require companies to remove the equipment or lose state funding.

The concern is that the Chinese Communist Party could use the equipment for surveillance, which would jeopardize national security.

State Sen. Elliot Bostar, a Democrat in the officially nonpartisan Legislature, introduced the bill and has support from State Sen. Suzanne Geist and U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, both Republicans.

Bostar said the bill would prohibit companies from receiving money from the Universal Service Fund if they don’t remove the Chinese tech.

He said right now only one company, Viaero Wireless, is known to have Chinese equipment on towers in the state.

Bostar said many of the towers are in western Nebraska, where the U.S. has nuclear missile silos.

He said an FBI investigation has “reportedly determined” that Chinese-made equipment atop cell towers in the Midwest “is capable of capturing and potentially disrupting highly restricted airwaves used by the military, specifically U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the U.S. nuclear arsenal.”

Part of the bill would require companies in Nebraska to testify that they don’t have Chinese tech on their towers.

If the bill is passed and a company won’t remove the equipment, its funding wouldn’t be stopped until 2025.