The FCC announced in June it had formally designated Chinese’s Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE as threats, a declaration that bars US firms from tapping an $8.3 billion government fund to purchase equipment from the companies.

Last week, the FCC said it was extending the time frame to respond to Huawei’s petition until 11 December “to fully and adequately consider the voluminous record”.

In May 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring US companies from using telecommunications equipment made by companies posing national security risks and the administration added Huawei to its trade blacklist.

On 10 December the FCC will vote on rules to help carriers remove and replace equipment from companies posing security risks from networks.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said last week the commission will take up two unspecified national security matters at its 10 December meeting.

In April, the FCC disclosed it might shut down the US operations of three state-controlled Chinese telecommunications companies: China Telecom, China Unicom and Pacific Networks Corp and its subsidiary ComNet (USA).

The 20 year old authorisations allow Chinese telecom companies to provide interconnection services for phone calls between the United States and other countries.