FCC Chairman Ajit Pai claimed that the “weight of evidence” supported the decision. Federal agencies and lawmakers have long claimed that because the tech giants are subject to Chinese law, they could be obligated to “cooperate with the country’s intelligence services”. Huawei and ZTE have repeatedly rejected these claims.
FCC said that they cannot and will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to exploit network vulnerabilities and compromise their critical communications infrastructure. The order, published by the FCC said the designation takes immediate effect, but it’s not immediately clear how the designation changes the status quo.
In a public statement, FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks, a Democrat, explained that labeling the companies threats is a start, but that there is a great deal of Huawei and ZTE equipment already in use that needs to be identified and replaced. He wrote, “The Commission has taken important steps toward identifying the problematic equipment in our systems, but there is much more to do. Funding is the missing piece. Congress recognized in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act that many carriers will need support to transition away from untrustworthy equipment, but it still has not appropriated funding for replacements.”
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