Mediacom Communications Corporation (MCC) has said that it's on course to complete the removal of banned Chinese equipment from its network this month.

First reported by Broadband Breakfast, the ISP confirmed via a filing to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it will remove the banned kit by its July 15 deadline.

"To date, 100 percent of the program has been completed across the areas of removal and replacement, and 99 percent of equipment has received disposal certification," said Mediacom in the filing.

"MCC has planned and scheduled its final shipment of covered equipment for pick-up and disposal on July 8, 2024. MCC is certain it will be fully completed with all removal, replacement, and disposal tasks before its program deadline of July 15, 2024."

The company did note, however, that the US government's rip-and-replace program has been far from simple, but did say the process "has recently shown some improvement."

In January, the FCC reported that only five companies had completed the removal of banned Chinese telecom equipment.

It stems back to 2019, when Congress passed the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, which authorized the FCC to reimburse certain telecommunications providers for the removal of Huawei and ZTE Corp.

To support the removal of this equipment, the FCC agreed to provide up to $1.9 billion for communications providers that have 10 million or fewer subscribers.

However, funding applications hit $4.98 billion, creating a $3.08 billion shortfall.

The companies were told in February 2020 to remove the Chinese equipment due to alleged security concerns.

Mediacom said that one of its biggest issues had been trying to source replacement kit.

"MCC did experience equipment delivery delays that significantly impacted the original MCC timeline for completion of removal, replacement, and disposal of its installed Huawei-covered equipment. Obviously, equipment could not be removed, services activated, subscribers migrated, and covered equipment disposed of until the replacement equipment was available. MCC worked closely with its OEMs, installation, engineering, and professional services vendors to mitigate any issues," it added in its filing.

US regional wireless carrier SI Wireless told DCD it fears for its future, amid the slow progress of the program.

SI Wireless President Leslie Williams said that the company, which was founded in 2009, has been unable to operate since the beginning of the rip-and-replace program operated by the FCC.

SI Wireless served around 30,000 rural customers across Tennessee and Kentucky with mobile, voice, and 4G data services across 204 sites, and relied heavily on roaming revenue from the big carriers, which didn't have a presence across those areas.

“The current situation with the Fund Administrator is deeply concerning for SI Wireless and threatens the viability of our business,” said Williams earlier this year.

“It's evident that the Fund Administrator is retaliating against us for our candid discussions about the program. Each invoice we submit faces significant delays, with some remaining unanswered for over a year now.”

He also told DCD that the company had no issues with any of the Chinese equipment it had been using.

"We didn't have any issues with the Chinese equipment. I've heard this across everybody who's in this program... but now we've ripped it out. And we're not getting reimbursed to rebuild the network that we had."

DCD did contact the FCC back in May but received no response.