FCC Affirms Designation of Huawei as National Security Threat

Upholds Ban on Universal Service Fund Spending on Huawei Equipment

The Federal Communications Commission today took another important step to secure the nation’s critical communications infrastructure by voting to deny Huawei Technologies Co.’s application for review of a June 30, 2020 order designating the company, as well as its parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries, as posing a national security threat to the safety of communications networks and the communications supply chain.  In the June order, the Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau formally designated Huawei as a covered company for purposes of the agency’s November 2019 ban on the use of support from the Commission’s Universal Service Fund to purchase equipment or services from companies posing a national security threat. 

Huawei filed an application for review of the Bureau’s order.  In denying that application, the Commission today recognized the overwhelming evidence of Huawei’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s military and intelligence apparatus, and affirmed the Bureau’s determination that Huawei poses a threat to the security and integrity of the nation’s communications networks or the communications supply chain.  Specifically, the Commission’s review of the record found that Huawei is susceptible to Chinese government pressure to participate in espionage activities, and that Huawei’s close ties to the Chinese military present significant risk.  Furthermore, reports of vulnerabilities in Huawei equipment have led other countries to bar the use of such equipment.  As a result of today’s order, money from the FCC’s $8.3 billion a year Universal Service Fund may not be used to purchase, obtain, maintain, improve, modify, or otherwise support any equipment or services produced or provided by Huawei.

Source: FCC media announcement