FCC VoIP proposal targets China Mobile, Unicom, Telecom divisions

By Amara Osei

The FCC is seeking approval at a November meeting for rules that would deny direct access to US phone numbers to telecoms providers on its Covered List of national security threats.

The proposal covers divisions of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, alongside numerous vendors. If approved in November and subsequently introduced, the curbs would block those companies from directly accessing US numbers for VoIP calls.

That is the immediate regulatory fact. The FCC would make access to private numbers conditional on national security certifications, while presenting the change as a way to curb illegal robocalls. Beijing reads the same rule as state-backed suppression, a less charitable diagnosis.

What exactly would the FCC require?

FCC chairman Brendan Carr unveiled the move on 28 October. Companies would need to obtain national security-focused certifications to access private numbers, with related changes to US VoIP numbering authorisation rules.

Carr put it plainly: “We are going to enhance the vetting process that all providers must go through before they obtain access to telephone numbers.” The agency says this would make it substantially more difficult for bad actors to operate in its networks.

He also tied the proposal to a wider review of a call's lifecycle, with the aim of making it harder for illegal robocalls to get through. Operationally, the FCC is adding a checkpoint at the numbering stage, rather like checking a licence before a company enters a market.

The sequence in the FCC's account places vetting before providers obtain telephone numbers, while the robocall rationale extends across the call lifecycle. Authorisation and enforcement are thus presented as parts of the same security effort.

For affected operators and vendors, certification would become the gate to direct access. Without certification, the listed companies could not obtain the requested direct number access. The FCC frames the condition as part of its robocall defence.

Why is Beijing objecting?

Chinese state news agency Xinhua published the response on 30 October. Chinese foreign ministry representative Guo Jiakun said the US had “overstretched the concept of national security and abused state power to unreasonably suppress Chinese companies”.

Guo argued the move would seriously impede normal economic and trade exchanges. He said it would not serve the interests of any party, including US companies and consumers, and that China planned measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises.

The two labels are stark. For the FCC, the gate addresses illegal robocalls and national security risk. For Beijing, the same gate obstructs Chinese companies and normal trade. The technical mechanism now sits inside a bilateral trade dispute.

What happens next?

The proposal is the latest FCC move against enterprises on the Covered List, which the report describes as largely made up of Chinese companies. Companies in its crosshairs and Chinese authorities have repeatedly slated such measures.

The sequence described is approval at an FCC meeting in November, followed by introduction of the restrictions. Until that process advances, the proposal does not itself change listed providers' access. It does, however, put certification and US VoIP numbering authorisation on the agenda.

Unlike October's competing statements, November carries a decision point. If the rules are approved and introduced, the three Chinese operator groups and vendors would need to obtain the FCC's national security-focused certifications before accessing private numbers directly.

China meanwhile has said it will take measures to safeguard its enterprises' legitimate rights and interests. The next checkpoint is the November FCC meeting; approval would move certification and numbering changes closer to introduction while Beijing has already promised a response.