FCC to Vote on Banning Chinese Telecom Firms From US Phone Numbers

The United States plans to ban Chinese telecom firms from direct access to US phone numbers on national security grounds, a step the Federal Communications Commission says is designed to stop scam robocalls, Reuters reported.

The FCC said on Thursday that it will vote on November 19 on the proposal, which covers China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom along with other providers of internet-based phone services.

"With this decision, the FCC will be strengthening our first line of defense against bad actors and illegal robocallers," FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement.

China's foreign ministry answered on Friday, saying Beijing firmly opposes the likely ban and accusing Washington of stretching the idea of national security and using state power to suppress Chinese companies. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.

The agency is weighing more steps. It plans to bar internet phone providers that use equipment from companies on its national security risk list, including Huawei and ZTE, and it would ban all Chinese laboratories from testing US electronics starting in December 2028. It may also revoke the direct number authorizations it has already given to Chinese companies it judges to be a risk.

The three Chinese carriers have been through this before. The FCC has already barred China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom from providing international phone services into the United States. In July the agency added California-based Digitalsystem Technology to its risk list, citing links to Chinese telecom firms. On October 27, Representative John Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, wrote to Carr urging the FCC to adopt the proposed rules.

The proposal reaches beyond the three named carriers. The FCC said other measures under consideration include barring the Chinese companies from connecting to US networks at all and from operating their data centers in the United States. The rules would also tighten how providers get access to numbers in the first place: Carr has said the plan requires national security focused certification and a stronger authorization process before any provider gains direct access to US phone numbers.

The providers in the frame are IP-enabled services, the internet-based phone services that carry calls as data over broadband connections rather than over the older telephone network. Because those services can obtain US numbers directly, regulators say they have become a channel for scam robocall operations run from abroad, which is the enforcement problem the November 19 vote is meant to close. The vote is scheduled three weeks out, and the Chinese response on Friday signals a diplomatic fight running alongside the regulatory one.