FCC Launches Sweeping Probe Into Chinese Telecom Companies Over Security Risks

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating several Chinese telecom companies, including Huawei, China Telecom, ZTE, Hikvision, China Mobile International USA, and China Unicom’s U.S. subsidiaries. The regulator is concerned that some of these firms are bypassing existing restrictions on their operations in the United States.

The FCC is an independent U.S. government agency responsible for regulating communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. Brendan Carr, who was appointed as FCC chair by President Donald Trump, has emphasized national security as a key priority, particularly regarding telecom and cyber-related threats from foreign adversaries like China.

Some of the companies under investigation, such as Huawei and ZTE, have already been placed on the “covered list”, which prohibits the U.S. government from purchasing their products due to national security concerns. The FCC has also revoked certain authorizations for Chinese telecom firms to operate in the country.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr stated that the agency has “reason to believe that, despite those actions, some or all of these covered list entities are trying to make an end run around those FCC prohibitions by continuing to do business in America on a private or ‘unregulated’ basis.” He made it clear that the agency will not overlook these activities.

To address these concerns, the FCC has sent letters requesting information about the companies’ operations and issued a subpoena to one of them. This marks the first major action taken by a newly established council on national security, which Carr created to strengthen oversight of telecom and cybersecurity threats, with a particular focus on China.