Huawei Slams TIA Support for FCC 'National Security Blacklist' Proposal

Huawei Technologies attacked the Telecommunications Industry Association's defense of an FCC proposal to bar USF subsidy support for products from companies seen as posing a national security threat. TIA's reply comments "misrepresent the record, are full of distortions and unproven accusations against Huawei, and fail to confront the statutory, administrative, constitutional, and factual deficiencies" in the proposed "national security blacklist," said Huawei's 50-page filing posted Tuesday, in docket 18-89, with 401 pages of exhibits. "As an example, TIA’s hodgepodge of reasons that the Chinese Government allegedly has undue influence over Huawei arbitrarily rests on speculation and is belied by both the law and the facts. As another example, TIA completely ignores both the statutory limits on the Commission’s USF authority and the lack of expertise in and responsibility for national-security issues that are necessary for any rulemaking in this context." TIA's comments and reply in the proceeding represent the TIA Public Policy Committee's views, noted Huawei, citing TIA footnotes. "The composition of that committee is undisclosed. Even Huawei, which is a member of TIA and has a representative on the board, has not been informed of the identity of the committee members." TIA's comments weren't "reviewed or approved by all of its members, or even by all members of its board," Huawei said. "While TIA claims that it submitted comments 'on behalf of its membership comprising hundreds of global manufacturers and vendors of ICT equipment and services,' ... this contradicts its own statements in the footnotes cited above, and it is not clear that its comments here are supported by more than a handful of such companies. TIA continues to refuse to disclose the identity of its members or other entities backing its Comments, who may be competitors of Huawei." TIA said Wednesday it's still reviewing Huawei’s filing. "That said, all commenters in this docket agree that protecting U.S. telecommunications networks is critical," emailed a spokesperson. "TIA continues to support the Commission taking carefully targeted action to address this pressing national security issue."