The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted new rules prohibiting domestic telecommunication operators from acquiring and using networking and other equipment from Huawei, ZTE and a handful of China-based telecommunication vendors deemed to pose a security threat to the nation’s communications network.

The FCC Report and Order states equipment from the named vendors “post an unacceptable risk to national security.” This equipment cannot gain FCC certification, which is needed for it to be legally sold and used in the United States, and it cannot be imported or marketed under any exemption rules.

Other vendors on that list include Hytera Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, and Dahua Technology.

The FCC move comes on the back of the Secure Equipment Act of 2021, which was signed by President Joe Biden late last year. That act required the FCC to adopt its stringent new rules.

“The FCC is committed to protecting our national security by ensuring that untrustworthy communications equipment is not authorized for use within our borders, and we are continuing that work here,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel noted in a statement on the new FCC order. “These new rules are an important part of our ongoing actions to protect the American people from national security threats involving telecommunications.”

The new order applies to future purchases of equipment initially listed on the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019. That act was passed by Congress in early 2020, and followed an executive order signed by President Donald Trump and backed by the FCC in mid-2019.

The FCC also introduced rulemaking that will allow it to investigate equipment that may have already been sold and installed. The U.S. has already earmarked billions of dollars to be used to help rip-and-replace existing network infrastructure from China-based vendors, including RAN equipment.

Huawei and ZTE remain the center of attention for the latest FCC actions. Those vendors had been gaining considerable market share in the radio access network (RAN) market over the past decade and were quickly lining up as some of the world’s largest 5G RAN vendors.

However, a trade war with the U.S. quickly torpedoed that progress. Most Western governments quickly followed the United States’ lead in either severely curtailing or eliminating the use of equipment from China-based vendors in their domestic telecom networks.

Those moves have begun to open up what had been a tightly controlled international RAN market, with smaller vendors like Samsung taking up the market slack alongside long-time market players Ericsson and Nokia. It has also led to growing interest in the open RAN ecosystem, which has been touted by established telecommunications operators as injecting more agility and competitiveness into the RAN space.

Huawei has attempted to counter the tide, claiming it’s been caught up in geopolitical tension between the U.S. and China.

“The U.S. government bipartisanly is really pissed off at China,” Huawei USA CSO Andy Purdy told SDxCentral in an interview in early 2020. “They are sincerely mad at China and they’re sincerely concerned about the rise of China economically and militarily. … They’re frankly afraid that China wants to take over the world. So it’s that context that is shading this thinking. They’re trying to hurt Huawei to hurt China, and they’re going so far that they’re willing to risk hurting America more than they hurt Huawei.”

Huawei was at the center of a Department of Justice criminal complaint filed last month alleging the vendor was behind attempts to bribe a U.S. government official to steal documents related to the ongoing security investigation into the vendor. The complaint lays out charges that two Chinese intelligence officers working at the behest of Huawei paid $61,000 in bitcoin to a “double agent” working in the in order to obtain FBI files tied to the ongoing investigation into Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government.

The U.S. more recently introduced new limits on exporting semiconductor technology to China in an attempt to block the country's technology advancements and military modernization. The Commerce Department export controls effectively isolate China from semiconductor chips made in any location using U.S. tools.

Huawei did not respond to SDxCentral's request for comment.