Small Carriers Suing for $430 Million in Rip and Replace Money

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2025 – Two wireless providers are separately suing the U.S. government for more than $430 million, claiming the Federal Communications Commission owes them that money as reimbursement for replacing network gear from blacklisted Chinese vendors.

The agency’s Rip and Replace program, as it’s known, was mandated by a 2019 law and pays smaller wireless carriers for swapping out equipment from Huawei and ZTE, which have been deemed security threats by U.S. lawmakers. The program was funded with $2 billion, but the FCC received more than $5 billion in applications that were largely deemed necessary.

That left participants with prorated reimbursements as deadlines for completing the work loomed and equipment aged, until a 2024 law provided the remaining $3 billion that was needed. That money was made available to providers in April, according to the FCC.

One of the litigants, a company called PTA-FLA, was actually never officially approved to participate in the program. The company said in a June 12 complaint in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that FCC webinars and guidance led it to believe it could start removing equipment before officially participating and still receive reimbursement, something that is generally true.

The company applied for funding under the program in January 2022, when its work was already done. The FCC denied the application because PTA-FLA itself has not since 2014 provided any wireless service, but rather owns affiliates that do.

PTA-FLA is now asking for nearly $274 million as reimbursement for the replacement work. The company claimed in its court filing that it would have been able to offer service after replacing its equipment.

“During this time, Plaintiff continued to pay for tower leases, maintain its infrastructure, and preserve its operational capabilities,” the company wrote. “The network could have resumed operations promptly should the United States have reimbursed Plaintiff as mandated by the Secure Networks Act.”

The other company, SI Wireless, is seeking more than $156 million in payments promised by the FCC but not yet completed. The company is a participant in the program and has so far received a separate $24.5 million. It claims about 11,000 customers.

SI Wireless said in its June 26 complaint it had dismantled its Huawei equipment, totaling 204 cell sites and two mobile switches. Payments for replacement equipment are still pending years later, despite the program’s recent infusion of cash. 

“While Plaintiff has placed orders for most of the replacement equipment, Plaintiff has been unable to complete the network rebuild due to the United States’s unlawful withholding of the reimbursement funds needed to pay contractors,” the company wrote.

The company has sued over Rip and Replace money before, alleging in April that the frozen payments and an FCC inquiry into whether the company qualified for the program were retaliation for the company’s public comments about dysfunction caused by the funding shortfall.

The companies are affiliated, with Leslie Williams having an ownership interest in both, according to documents PTA-FLA has submitted to the FCC.

Status report

The FCC updates Congress on the program every 180 days, the most recent of which was published Monday. The agency said 34 of the 126 participating companies certified that they fully removed the Chinese equipment from their networks.

The agency said it expects participants to move quickly now that funding is less of an issue – 42 percent of the providers had said the now-remedied lack of funding was slowing them down – and set a deadline on May 8, 2026 for most of them to finish work.

Other delays reported included supply chain difficulties, labor shortages, and unexpected weather impacts. Supply delays were by far the most common of those, affecting 39 percent of participants. Labor shortages plagued 8 percent and weather events impacted 17 percent.

As of May 31, the agency said it had approved nearly $1.15 billion in payments, up from $944 million in December 2024.