US pulls the plug on more China telecos

China provides expressed its solid opposition to a brand new US Federal Marketing communications Commission (FCC) choice to ban 3 Chinese telecom businesses from selling tools to its web development fund.

On Tuesday, the FCC said it had put Chinese telecom firms China Unicom (Americas), Pacific Networks Corp and its wholly-owned subsidiary ComNet (USA) upon its “Covered List” of potential risks to national security.

The status means the companies will be barred from promoting equipment to the FCC’s General Service Fund , a system designed to increase access to telecommunications meant for rural residents as well as the underprivileged in America. The fund’s budget runs from US$5-8 billion per year.

China’s Foreign Ministry said the US need to immediately reverse your decision and stop hobbling and suppressing Chinese companies. The move signifies an extension of previously FCC bans upon big Chinese telecom players.

In November 2019, the FCC prohibited the use of federal government subsidies to buy telecommunications equipment made by Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp.

Citing Attorney General William Barr, the particular order said provided that Huawei and ZTE were subject to the legal and extralegal influence and power over the Chinese authorities and the Chinese Communist Party there would be doubts that they could be reliable to comply fully with US law.

In June 2020, the US Department associated with Commerce’s National Telecoms and Information Administration (NTIA) informed the particular FCC in a letter that Huawei plus ZTE posed national security threats towards the US.

In March last year, the FCC additional Huawei, ZTE, China Mobile International UNITED STATES Inc, China Telecom (Americas) Corp plus Russia’s cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab in order to its Covered Listing.

Earlier this year, the FCC also terminated The far east Unicom, Pacific Systems and ComNet’s capability to provide telecom services in America. On Tuesday, the three firms had been added to the FCC’s Covered List.

China Mobile is in the US FCC’s crosshairs for alleged national security reasons. Picture: Twitter

Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the FCC, said: “Working with our nationwide security partners, we are now taking additional action to shut the door to these three companies by adding them to the FCC’s Protected List. This action demonstrates our whole-of-government effort to protect network security and privacy. ”

She stated, based on the recommendations within letters filed with the NTIA, that the 3 Chinese companies had been subject to the exploitation, influence and power over the Chinese govt and the national safety risks associated therewith.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson from China’s Foreign Ministry, retorted : “This is an additional example of the US over-stretching the concept of national security and abusing condition power to suppress Chinese companies.

“What the US did violates the rules of the marketplace economy, undermines global economic and business order and seriously hurts the interests of Chinese companies. China firmly rejects this. ”

Wang stated China will keep take measures to uphold the lawful rights and interests of Chinese businesses.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Connections, was quoted by the Global Times because saying that Chinese telecom businesses were not seriously affected by the FCC’s decisions as they had the majority of their businesses based in mainland China and only provided services with local partners in america.

Xiang stated the FCC’s reductions of Chinese companies would only hurt the US as a lots of small and medium-sized telecom operators would no longer be able to use China’s low-cost and high-performance equipment. He said as US mobile operators had already spent a lot more than US$100 billion to develop their own 5G technologies, local consumers would have to pay the higher expenses.

China Unicom said inside a statement on Thursday night that it had operated its businesses in the US in accordance with local law for two decades and been a trustworthy telecommunication solution supplier for American customers.

China Unicom said the FCC’s allegations that the company’s unit had endangered national security in america were groundless. Additionally, it said the allegations undermined its popularity and lawful rights and that it would make a change to protect its legal rights.

Tiongkok Unicom is thriving in China, less so in the US. Picture: Facebook

On Thursday, a Chinese columnist wrote in an article that it made no big difference whether Chinese language telecom companies were on the FCC’s Protected List or not because China Telecom, China Mobile and China and taiwan Unicom had already been delisted from ALL OF US stock markets this past year.

He stated Chinese telecom businesses would survive so long as they had their own 5G technologies. However , he or she added that Chinese telecom and tools providers might encounter heavy fines plus legal costs when they wanted to fight for their rights in the US.

As of the end of August, China Mobile had 539 million 5G users, whilst China Telecom got 243 million plus China Unicom 195 million. The three firms’ total 5G users numbered 977 million , compared to 580 billion a year ago.

According to Statista. possuindo, the number of 5G mobile phone service subscriptions in america is expected to grow to 74 million at the end of 2022 from 41. three or more million last year.  

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