WASHINGTON: The US Federal Communications Commission said on Monday it may bar three major Chinese telecom companies from connecting to US networks over efforts to prevent robocalls, the latest in a series of actions Washington has taken against Beijing.
The FCC issued orders saying China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom must address issues with their certifications in the agency’s robocall mitigation database, and raised concerns about their presence in the database. If the FCC removes them, it would require all intermediate providers and voice service providers handling calls in the US to cease accepting all calls directly from the Chinese telecoms.
The regulator warned that because of national security concerns it may still remove the carriers from the database if the companies cannot offer convincing evidence that their presence in it “is not a threat to national security and is in the public interest.” The FCC gave the companies two weeks to respond.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FCC previously barred the three companies from operating in the US. In 2019, it rejected China Mobile’s bid to provide US telecommunications services, citing national security risks, and then revoked US operations authorisation for China Unicom, Pacific Networks and its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet, and China Telecom Americas in 2021 and 2022.
On Oct 15, the FCC said it was moving to revoke the ability of HKT, a leading Hong Kong telecom carrier and subsidiary of PCCW, to operate in the US, citing national security concerns.
The FCC recently moved to withdraw recognition from test labs owned or controlled by the Chinese government. In March, the FCC said it was investigating nine Chinese companies on a list of firms that raise national security concerns, including China Unicom, Huawei, ZTE and Pacific Networks/ComNet.
