INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
It has the simplest name, but the sort of shadowy overtones that national security writers lust after.
Team Telecom, a mostly informal
working committee of the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice (along with affiliated agencies) has for years been quietly
tasked with evaluating and maintaining the security of America telecom infrastructure in concert with the FCC
Its primary objective as far as we have been able to ascertain is to monitor the ownership of key telecom assets to ensure they don''t fall
into the hands of suspect nations (think China, Russia, etc).
Last year, Mark Harris over on Extra Crunch took an in-depth look at the
extreme delays companies can experience going through a Team Telecom review (membership required), which in the case of China Mobile
expansion into the United States , extended up to seven years before the Team rejected the Chinese bid for market entry.
How US national
security agencies hold the internet hostage
That informal arrangement is disappearing, as the administration over the weekend published a
new executive order formally instantiating Team Telecom as a legal process for reviewing applications for telecom licenses, deals and other
requests made to the FCC.
Under a newly christened &Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States
Telecommunications Services Sector& (CAFPUSTSS?), the Committee will be charged with assisting ''the FCC in its public interest review of
national security and law enforcement concerns that may be raised by foreign participation in the United States telecommunications services
sector.
Like its Team Telecom forerunner, the Committee will be made up of the heads of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security, with the
attorney general playing the role of chair
Applications to the Committee will be referred to the United States government highest-ranking intelligence officer, the Director of
National Intelligence, for analysis.
Unlike in the past, where the timeline for reviews was anything but standardized, the executive order
provides for a 120-day adjudication process, with a 90-day extension if the Committee has additional concerns and goes through a secondary
review.
In a brief press statement, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, &I applaud the President for formalizing Team Telecom review and
establishing a process that will allow the Executive Branch to provide its expert input to the FCC in a timely manner.& The FCC intends to
finish its own rulemaking around Team Telecom, a process which was first proposed at the tail end of the Obama administration and has been
on-going ever since.
These reforms to Team Telecom are in line with similar reforms made to CFIUS, the Committee for Foreign Investment in
the United States, which were finalized at the beginning of this year after Congress passed a reform bill in 2018.
WTF is CFIUS?
While the
new rules will provide some certainty to areas of telecom like fiber optic cable expansion and wireless services, expect the new rules to be
used to put even more restrictions on countries like China hoping to get a slice of the United States infrastructure market
Indeed, in the FCC statement today, the agency said, &As we demonstrated last year in rejecting the China Mobile application, this FCC will
not hesitate to act to protect our networks from foreign threats.
Trump readying ‘all of the above& fusillade on Chinese tech
