Brett Guthrie: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 4032, the Open RAN Outreach…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 4032, the Open RAN Outreach Act. Untrusted telecommunication companies, such as Chinese Communist Party-backed Huawei, are able to offer low-cost equipment to small and rural providers across the globe due to the Chinese Government subsidizing them. Due to congressional action, untrusted vendors can no longer provide telecommunications equipment in the U.S., and bills I have supported, such as Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act and USA Telecommunications Act, help remove untrusted equipment to secure our networks and promote competition. The Open RAN Outreach Act further builds on our efforts to strengthen our supply chain and ensure untrusted equipment is kept out of American telecommunications networks. Open RAN technology can help diversify telecommunications technology and help increase competition. This technology is an open network infrastructure that can have multiple components from multiple manufacturers. The Open RAN Outreach Act requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to provide small and rural providers information on the opportunities and challenges of implementing Open RAN compatible technology. If providers would like to use this technology, this bill also requires NTIA to support implementation of Open RAN technologies.…”