Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

The respective parties have filed their opening briefs in Chinese telecom Huawei's challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's initial determination that its technology is a national security risk and must be excluded from broadband subsidies — and likely ripped and replaced from existing networks. The FCC voted unanimously on June 30 to affirm its initial designation that Huawei (and ZTE) are suspect, which means no carrier can use tech from either company to build out broadband and be eligible for any of the government's billions of dollars in Universal Service Fund subsidies for

The Commerce Department, as statutorily obligated by a recent law, sought feedback on how to best implement an administration 5G security strategy and has now posted all its comments. Around 80 parties weighed in, from the city of New York to companies like AT&T, Qualcomm and Ligado.

China is using the same tactics it employed to drive down the price of telecommunications equipment from Huawei to flood the US market with fiber optic cables—crucial underlying infrastructure for fifth-generation networks—a senior Commerce Department official said. "China is currently driving massive overcapacity in critical sectors including steel, aluminum and optical fiber cables,” said Nazak Nikakhtar, Commerce’ assistant secretary for industry and analysis.

The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on Thursday, July 16, 2020. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and related agency telework and headquarters access policies, this meeting will be in a wholly electronic format and will be open to the public on the Internet via live feed from the FCC’s web page and on the FCC’s YouTube channel.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is angering a lot of powerful people as his chairmanship hits its fourth and potentially final year. The Pentagon, the Commerce Department and the Department of Transportation. Electric utilities, airlines and the auto industry. Public safety officials and weather forecasters. Top lawmakers of both parties, including Sen John Kennedy (R-LA) an ally of President Donald Trump’s who controls the FCC’s purse strings on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade, human rights, the handling of Covid-19, and Chinese misinformation are escalating global divisions around the deployment of 5G. A growing number of countries are aligning with either a Western or a Chinese version of the tech.

Network security is national security. Today’s actions will help secure our networks against new threats from Huawei and ZTE equipment. We must not, however, lose sight of the untrustworthy equipment already in place. The Commission has taken important steps toward identifying the problematic equipment in our systems, but there is much more to do. We must prioritize our review of our recent information collection and establish an expedited plan for the removal and replacement of untrustworthy equipment.

The Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau formally designated two companies—Huawei Technologies Company (Huawei) and ZTE Corporation (ZTE), as well as their parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries—as covered companies for purposes of the agency’s November 2019 ban on the use of universal service support to purchase equipment or services from companies posing a national security threat.

I commend the US-India Business Council (USIBC) for launching this Webinar series on 5G. I’ve been asked to begin with an update on the Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to promote the development and deployment of 5G. This is something we’ve spent quite some time on, to say the least. We call our strategy the 5G FAST plan, and it has three key components: freeing up spectrum, promoting wireless infrastructure, and modernizing regulations to encourage fiber deployment.

Trump administration officials have talked about inserting the federal government deep into the private sector to stiffen global competition against Chinese telecom giant Huawei. The ideas -- discussed intermittently with US tech giants, private-equity firms, and veteran telecom executives -- include prodding large US technology companies like Cisco to acquire European companies Ericsson or Nokia.