The US Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday said that it had rejected a petition from ZTE Corp (中興) asking the agency to reconsider its decision designating the Chinese company as a US national security threat to communications networks.
The FCC in June announced that it had formally designated China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and ZTE as threats, a declaration that bars US firms from tapping a US$8.3 billion US government fund to purchase equipment from the firms.
ZTE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, the FCC said that it was extending until Dec.11 the time frame to respond to Huawei’s petition “to fully and adequately consider the voluminous record.”
US President Donald Trump in May last year signed an executive order barring US firms from using telecommunications equipment made by companies posing national security risks and his administration added Huawei to its trade blacklist.
At its next meeting on Dec. 10, the FCC is to vote on rules to help carriers remove and replace equipment from companies posing security risks from their networks.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last week said that the commission would take up two unspecified national security matters at the meeting.
The FCC in April disclosed that it might shut down the US operations of three state-controlled Chinese telecoms: China Telecom Corp (中國電信), China Unicom Ltd (中國聯通) and Pacific Networks Corp (太平洋網絡), and its subsidiary ComNet (USA) LLC.
The nearly 20-year-old authorizations allow Chinese telecoms to provide interconnection services for phone calls between the US and other countries.
Last week, the FCC said that it was reclaiming International Signaling Point Codes assigned to China Telecom, as it found that “the three codes are no longer in use.”
China Telecom did not immediately comment.
Last month, the FCC asked the US Department of Justice to adjudicate on whether China Unicom’s US operations pose security risks.
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