The new rules bring the FCC in compliance with the 2021 Secure Equipment Act, the agency said
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Friday new rules that prohibit communications and video surveillance equipment made by Chinese companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision and Dahua from being authorized for import and use by U.S. buyers.
The equipment and vendors in question were already prohibited from being used or purchased with federal funds, as well as being on a list of risky equipment maintained by the FCC that is deemed to pose “an unacceptable risk to national security.” But the prohibitions had not yet extended to the FCC’s device certification of gear which is allowed to be imported and operate in the U.S.
“While we’ve flagged equipment as posing a national security risk, prohibited
companies from using federal funds to purchase them, and even stood up programs to replace them, for the last several years the FCC has continued to put its stamp of approval on this equipment through its equipment authorization process,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel explained in a statement. “So long as this equipment carries that stamp, it can continue to be imported into the United States and sold to buyers who are not using federal funds. But that does not make any sense,” she continued. “After all, there is little benefit in having these lists and these bans in place just to leave open other opportunities for this equipment to be present in our networks. So … we are taking action to align our equipment authorization procedures with the rest of our national security policies.”
The agency said that the change brings the device authorization process in line with the the Secure Equipment Act, which was signed into law by the Biden administration in 2021. The Biden administration’s efforts codified and extended import restrictions on Chinese telecom gear first imposed by the Trump administration in 2019.
“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 Rosenworcel.
The new rules prohibit affected future equipment from the banned vendors from being authorized through the FCC’s certification process, the agency explained. The rules make clear “that such equipment cannot be authorized … or be imported or marketed under rules that allow exemption from an equipment authorization,” said the FCC.
The telecom gear-and-software-replacement program instituted as a result of these restrictions — known commonly as “rip and replace” — subsidizes the replacement of Chinese-made telecommunications gear used by smaller U.S. carriers with gear from other vendors who still pass muster with federal regulators. The FCC noted in February that $5.6 billion had been requested by carriers applying for the program, far outstripping the $1.9 billion Congress had initially appropriated. The FCC went back to Congress over the summer and asked for another $3.08 billion to cover the difference, warning that without more money, they’d have to prorate reimbursements at 40 cents on the dollar, leaving many smaller telcos holding the bag for potentially millions of dollars.
The FCC said several factors caused the rise in reimbursement requests: That started with a decision to expand the program to include providers servicing up to 10 million subscribers, up from 2 million. Inflation and supply chain constraints have also ballooned costs. What’s more, the fund now requires ripping and replacement work to be done within a year, requiring a significant premium for an already challenging labor market. What’s more, the preliminary cost estimates ascertained in the original study didn’t actually account for the full range of carrier costs associated with reimbursement, as required by the final legislation.
