The US FCC will vote to harden the restrictions on the Chinese telecommunications team

By David Sheparson

Washington (Reuters) -The Federal Communications Commission will vote this month to harden the restrictions on telecommunications teams made by Chinese companies considered national security risks, the last one of a series of US actions aimed at Beijing.

The US Telecommunications Regulator previously appointed companies such as Huawei Technologies, ZTE, Hangzhou Hikvision, China Mobile and China Telecom to the so -called “Covered List”, which prevents the FCC from authorizing the import or sale of new equipment from those companies.

The president of the FCC, Brendan Carr, said that the agency will vote on October 28 to prohibit the authorization of devices that contain pieces of components that are on the covered list and authorize the agency to ban the sale of previously authorized covered listing equipment in specific cases.

“We will also see a series of questions about how to improve the process even more and keep the bad team out of our networks,” Carr said in a statement.

In March, the FCC said it was investigating nine Chinese companies on the covered list, including Huawei, ZTE, as well as Hytera Communications, Dahua Technology Company, Pacifica Networks/Comnet and China Unicom (Americas).

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not comment immediately.

The FCC previously prevented some Chinese companies from providing telecommunications services in the United States, citing national security concerns.

Carr said that the FCC has reasons to believe that some or all Chinese companies in the list “are trying to make an end around those FCC prohibitions by continuing to do business in the United States on a private or” unregulated “basis.

Last month, the FCC began the procedures to withdraw the recognition of seven test laboratories owned or controlled by the Chinese government, citing national security concerns of the United States.

The United States Telecommunications Agency in May voted to finish the rules that prohibit such laboratories to test electronic devices such as smartphones, cameras and computers for use in the United States.

(David Shepardson report; Lincoln Feast edition)