On October 5, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared a draft order with fellow commissioners that would practically ban sales of new telecommunications devices in the US produced by Huawei and ZTE, as they are considered a threat to national security, sources told the news outlet.
The order, which has yet to survive a vote, would also determine the ban's applicability to sales of video surveillance equipment used for public safety, the sources were cited as saying. This would affect Chinese companies such as Hytera Communications Corporation, Hikvision and Dahua Technology Company.
The ban would only apply to newly-made devices, which means that companies would be able to continue to sell the devices that had were approved by the FFC in the past.
In 2020, the FCC published a blacklist of telecommunications companies considered to be threats to US national security and banned the use of federal funds for purchasing equipment from those companies, while private purchases remained allowed.
In March 2021, the FCC expanded the blacklist to include Chinese companies Zhejiang Dahua Technology, Huawei Technologies, ZTE, Hytera Communications, and Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology.