FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that he had established a new Council on National Security within the FCC, with the new investigation into Chinese telcos its first major initiative.

Dominant telecoms equipment providers Huawei and ZTE feature prominently on a wider list of targeted Chinese telecoms and tech companies that the FCC calls its Covered List.

The Covered List entities targeted in this FCC investigation are: Huawei Technologies Company, ZTE Corporation, Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company, Dahua Technology Company, China Mobile International USA Inc., China Telecom (Americas) Corp., Pacifica Networks Corp./ComNet (USA) LLC, and China Unicom (Americas) Operations Ltd.

"Specifically, the FCC has launched a sweeping investigation into the ongoing US operations of CCP-aligned businesses whose equipment or services the FCC previously placed on its Covered List based on determinations that those equipment or services pose unacceptable risks to America’s national security," the FCC stated in its announcement.

"Despite being placed on the FCC’s Covered List, some or all of those entities may still be operating in the US — either because they do not believe the FCC’s Covered List prohibits particular types of operations or otherwise."

To open its investigation, the FCC sent Letters of Inquiry and at least one subpoena to the companies named on the Covered List and is now gathering responses to determine "any actions that may be necessary to further safeguard America’s networks and promote our national security."

“The FCC has taken concrete actions to address the threats posed by Huawei, ZTE, China Telecom, and many other entities that pose an unacceptable risk to America’s national security, including by doing Communist China’s bidding,” Chairman Carr stated.

“To safeguard our networks, the FCC has placed those CCP-aligned entities on our Covered List, and we have revoked many of the FCC authorisations that they had been operating under.

“We have reason to believe that, despite those actions, some or all of these Covered List entities are trying to make an end run around those FCC prohibitions by continuing to do business in America on a private or ‘unregulated’ basis.

"We are not going to just look the other way.

"The FCC, working through our new Council on National Security and in coordination with partners across the Federal government, will identify the scope of their ongoing activities and move quickly to close any loopholes that have permitted untrustworthy, foreign adversary state-backed actors to skirt our rules.”

The FCC’s investigation intends to gather detailed information about the Chinese companies' ongoing US businesses, as well as companies that may be "aiding their operations in the US."