The US ramped efforts to spread its 5G policies abroad, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) teamed to influence development of the technology in emerging markets.

Under a memorandum of understanding, the agencies will coordinate efforts to steer developing countries away from so-called “untrusted vendors”, and encourage use of “open, interoperable, reliable and secure” network infrastructure.

USAID committed to: provide “technical assistance, including through embedded advisers” to governments which request help revising telecoms policies; educate private-sector partners on cybersecurity risks; and help establish contact between open RAN vendors and government officials.

The FCC will supply technical experts on telecoms and spectrum law to share information with government officials and train USAID workers.

USAID is an independent federal agency which leads the government’s international development and disaster assistance efforts, with activities spanning Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe.

The move aims to implement part of a national 5G security plan laid out by the US in March, which includes a goal to promote global development of secure systems.

It also comes as the US continues a campaign to reduce domestic reliance on Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE, and pressures allies to do the same, an effort it formalised in April with the launch of its Clean Networks programme.