The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reportedly on the verge of banning all sales or marketing in the U.S. of telecommunications equipment produced by China telecom companies Huawei and ZTE Corporation.
According to a recent report in The New York Times, the Commission is expected to soon vote on rules that would forbid all sales of new electronics products manufactured by organizations on the FCC’s “covered companies” that pose a threat to U.S. national security. The ban would codify a law signed last November by President Biden that prevents the FCC from reviewing or approving any application for equipment authorization produced or manufactured by entities on its “covered companies” list.
Huawei and ZTE were among the first companies named to the FCC’s covered companies list in June 2019, a list which now includes 10 separate entities with ties to China. Until now, the extent of the ban on equipment from covered companies has been focused exclusively on prohibiting the use of federal funds to purchase such equipment. The scope of the FCC’s reported plan would, in effect, ban all sales of new equipment from covered companies. However, it does not appear that equipment that has already been granted FCC approval would be restricted.
Read the Times article about the FCC’s plans to ban the sale of telecommunications equipment from Huawei and ZTE.
