An investigation by the US Senate has found that the government exercises little formal oversight of foreign telecom operators operating in the country. The report from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate called for the establishment of a statutory authority to supervise foreign operators and protect national security interests.
The investigation was prompted by the FCC's decision in 2019 to reject China Mobile's application for an operating licence in the US. The regulator found that the operator would pose a risk to national security, as China Mobile is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government and subject to its orders.
The Subcommittee reviewed three other Chinese government-owned telecom companies that already had FCC aithorisation to operate in the US. It found that the FCC conducted little in the way of checks after first issuing the licences, as there is no requirement for repeat evaluations, and relied on other government departments in assessing the initial security risks. Any further intervention was left up to the so-called 'Team Telecom', an informal association of officials from the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security that could visit foreign operators and agree security protocols with them.
The Subcommittee’s year-long investigation found that the FCC and Team Telecom failed to monitor the three Chinese carriers - China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas and ComNet USA, which have been operating in the US since the early 2000s. Team Telecom visited only two of the carriers twice in more than a decade. With no formal system of oversight based in law, the state-owned carriers could exploit their position in the US to conduct cyber-espionage on behalf of the Chinese state, the Senate report warned.
The situation may change soon following an order from the White House to set up a formal commission to supervise foreign participation in the US telecom sector. The government departments involved are still working on establishing the new structure.
