US no longer grants ‘risky equipment’ from Huawei and ZTE

US President Joe Biden has signed a law banning companies such as China’s Huawei and ZTE from obtaining licenses from the US FCC for “risky” equipment or technologies destined for the US telecom sector.

The devices had already been banned from the US telecom sector, but companies could apply for approval through the FCC to use the devices. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr tells Reuters that more than 3,000 approvals have been issued since 2018 for Huawei applications.

With The Secure Equipment Act, which was already passed by the US Senate and House of Representatives last month, the FCC is no longer allowed to review or approve such applications. Effectively, equipment that the US government believes poses an “unacceptable risk” to national security is now permanently banned in the country.

These are applications from companies listed in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019. That law includes Chinese companies such as Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, Zhejiang Dahua Technology. According to Carr, this law will make it possible to exclude ‘unsafe products from Huawei’ from the American telecom network.