The United States FCC, the apex communications technology regulator, formally designated Chinese Huawei Technologies Company (Huawei) and ZTE Corporation (ZTE) as "national security threats" and banned the use of universal service support to purchase equipment or services.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said both companies had close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the military apparatus. “With today’s orders, and based on the overwhelming weight of evidence, the Bureau has designated Huawei and ZTE as national security risks to America’s communications networks—and to our 5G future,” said Pai in a press release. “Both companies have close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s military apparatus, and both companies are broadly subject to Chinese law obligating them to cooperate with the country’s intelligence services. The Bureau also took into account the findings and actions of Congress, the Executive Branch, the intelligence community, our allies, and communications service providers in other countries. We cannot and will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to exploit network vulnerabilities and compromise our critical communications infrastructure."
Huawei has been facing a lot of hurdles in its 5G implementation dreams. In telecommunications, 5G is the fifth generation technology standard for cellular networks, the planned successor to the 4G networks which provide connectivity to most cellphones currently.
Numerous countries have pulled out of deals with the company. Spanish multinational telecommunications company Telefnica states in its digital manifesto that security is paramount. Its CEO and chairman Jose Lopez this week declared that Telefnica is proud to be a Clean Path company, and Telefnica in Spain and the UK are fully clean networks. "Telefnica Deutschland and Brazil will be, in the near future, without equipment from any untrusted vendors," top US diplomat Keith Krach said.
"Just a few weeks ago, the big three telcos of Canada decided to partner with Ericsson and Nokia because Canadian public opinion was overwhelmingly against allowing Huawei into the 5G networks. The largest telco companies in major countries around the globe are also becoming Clean Telcos," Krach said.
"In addition to Telefonica, we've seen this with Orange in France, Reliance in India, Telstra in Australia, SK and KT in Korea, Cosmote in Greece, NTT in Japan, and O2 in the United Kingdom," Krach said, adding that the momentum in favour of securing 5G is building.
The more countries, companies and citizens ask whom they should trust with the most sensitive data, the more obvious the answer becomes: not the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state, the US diplomat said.
Krach said that the UK's decision to reconsider the use of Huawei and its 5G networks resulted in a dramatic backlash from China. It threatened to punish the British bank HSBC, and pull investment from major British infrastructure projects.
-Inputs from PTI
