Regulators in the U.S. have continued a years-long campaign to restrict the access of Chinese telecoms companies to U.S. networks by prohibiting Huawei, ZTE, China Teelecom, China Unicom, and others from selling their hardware in the United States. U.S. regulators claim these Chinese companies constitute a significant security risk.
Just before the weekend, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had unanimously decided to enact new regulations that will prohibit the importation or sale of specific technological devices that pose security concerns to critical U.S. infrastructure.
It’s the most recent in a series of years-long tightenings of American technological restrictions that started under the administration of former President Donald Trump and have continued through that of current President Joe Biden.
“The FCC is committed to protecting our national security by ensuring that untrustworthy communications equipment is not authorized for use within our borders, and we are continuing that work here,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “These new rules are an important part of our ongoing actions to protect the American people from national security threats involving telecommunications.”
U.S. Telecommunication Networks
The new regulations make it clear that the equipment from Huawei, ZTE, China Telecom, China Unicom, and others cannot be allowed through the Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity procedure, the FCC’s Certification process, or be imported or sold in accordance with regulations that exclude the equipment from authorization.
The Report and Order applies to future authorizations of equipment identified on the Covered List published by the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau pursuant to the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019.
The new regulations come after a number of earlier FCC actions aimed at protecting American telecommunication networks. The FCC has also prohibited the use of public funds to acquire covered equipment or services. In addition, they launched the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to remove insecure equipment already present in U.S. telecommunication networks. They’ve also revoked operating authorizations for Chinese state-owned carriers in response to recommendations from national security agencies, and updated the procedure for approving submarine cable projects.