FCC Imposes Huawei, ZTE Ban; Warner Says US Falling Behind on 5G

RWA, whose members use low-cost equipment from the two providers, asked the FCC to go slow on a decision, especially with questions about who will pay for the gear to be replaced (see 2006190063). Huawei and ZTE didn’t comment. Nor did China's embassy.

Commissioners in November approved supply chain rules, 5-0, designating the two as the first covered companies (see 1911220033). The bureau “took into account the findings and actions of Congress, the Executive Branch, the intelligence community, our allies, and communications service providers in other countries,” said Chairman Ajit Pai now.

Don’t “lose sight of the untrustworthy equipment already in place,” said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “We must prioritize our review of our recent information collection and establish an expedited plan for the removal and replacement of untrustworthy equipment,” he said: “That plan should seriously consider leveraging Open RAN technology, which will use standardized hardware and interoperable interfaces to enable networks to combine equipment from multiple vendors.” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel emailed that the FCC had made the right decision.

“Huawei and ZTE are nothing short of a threat to our collective security,” Commissioner Brendan Carr tweeted: “America is now showing the strength and resolve needed to address the threats posed by Communist China.”

Warner

“We candidly are not doing as well as I’d like” on 5G, Warner said during the webinar. “5G is not a nice to have or hope to have,” he said. All the promises of the IoT are “going to ride upon a 5G network,” he said: “It’s critically important that the United States, and on a broader level, the West, get 5G right and lead the world.” But the U.S. doesn’t have a single equipment provider making the gear, he said. “We’re so used to leading in wireless, so used to setting the rules, the protocols, the procedures, the standards, that we kind of fell asleep at the switch.”

Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said using Huawei gear on U.S. networks is a security risk to the entire network. With no U.S. equipment makers, Warner said the best alternative could be an O-RAN, the target of S-3189, which would create an NTIA-managed O-RAN access network R&D fund to spur movement to open-architecture. Warner said the Senate version of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (S-4049) provides R&D funds but too little to be effective.

China is a “great nation,” Warner said. “My beef is with the Communist Party in China, President Xi Jinping’s leadership, and how they have been able to take the enormous technological leap forward that China is leading in many areas,” he said. Chinese companies are “almost an arm of the Chinese government, which … poses enormous risks and challenges,” he said.

The U.S. government hasn’t “articulated a clear path forward” and that has gotten worse under President Donald Trump, Warner said. Under the Chinese system, Huawei has become the dominant player there, with a revenue stream to build on when it moves into other countries, he said. “It really makes it extraordinarily difficult for any Western company … to compete with that challenge.”

During earlier generations of wireless, there was never enough focus on security, said former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., once chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “We were in such a hurry to move out and move forward, and we believed our innovation was going to dominate every conversation,” he said: “That’s changing.” The rest of the world doesn’t want the U.S. to be the dominant player on 5G, he said.

“We’ve got to get the security piece right,” Rogers said: “Think about the threat vectors that happen when we open up 5G fully.” There are gaps in the 5G cloud, every IoT device is a potential threat, there will be more antennas “and lots and lots of more code being written to run software-defined networks and other things,” he said. The U.S. is also losing to China the right to write 5G standards, he said. Other speakers agreed U.S. companies have to stay active on standard setting.

The U.S. also isn’t spending enough time at international government-level meetings, Rogers said. “Apparently it isn’t sexy enough for these diplomats.” Rogers recalled one meeting where the U.S. sent three representatives and the Chinese more than 120. "We have to be there," he said.

O-RAN offers a different architecture “but different doesn’t mean less secure,” said former NTIA acting Administrator Diane Rinaldo, now executive director of the O-RAN Policy Coalition. Industry and the government must work together, she said. “Our tax dollars pay for all of these intelligence agencies,” she said: Can they “help ensure a stronger, more robust, secure supply chain?”

U.S. carriers can choose from only three non-Chinese providers for core network equipment -- Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung, said Chris Boyer, AT&T vice president-global security and technology policy. “Industry needs to have a broad base of suppliers, and we need competition,” he said. That’s one reason industry supports the work of the O-RAN coalition, he said.

Evelyn Remaley, NTIA associate administrator-policy analysis and development, said the agency is analyzing the more than 80 comments on the National Strategy to Secure 5G Implementation Plan, posted by her agency Monday. “How can government ensure that the marketplace is functioning as well as it can?” she asked: Are there ways the government can “really ignite the market?”