The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has denied a request from Huawei Technologies to extend the reply period in connection with the company’s final designation as a national security threat under the U.S. National Supply Chain Proceeding.
As we previously reported, the FCC issued a Report and Order in late November 2019 that bans the use of monies from the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) to purchase telecommunications equipment and services from companies that pose a national security threat. The Commission initially designated Huawei and ZTE as “covered companies” under the scope of the ban.
According to the FCC, Huawei submitted more than 5000 pages of documentation during the public comment period following the issuance of the Report and Order.
Now, in an Order issued in on June 16, the FCC denied a Motion for Extension of Time filed by Huawei that would have given the company an additional week to review and comment on information submitted to the Commission on June 9th by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in support of that final designation. The Commission originally granted Huawei 10 days to respond.
In its Order, the FCC noted that the documentation submitted by the NTIA “reflects facts about Chinese law or Huawei’s operations that ought to be within the knowledge of officers of the company and readily available, and have been echoed in other submissions throughout this proceeding.” Under the circumstances, the Commission argued, “an extension of time is not warranted given the programmatic and national security interests at stake.”
Read the text of the FCC’s Order denying Huawei’s extension of time request.
