China Telecom’s appeal fails, must exit US by early January

China Telecom lost its appeal against the revocation of its license and must cease all operations in the US by early January 2022. The US Court of Appeals for the District Columbia declined the request to block the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order to cancel its 20-year-old licence to operate in US territory. The FCC’s ruling stands, and China Telecom Americas – the company’s US-based operation – which provides to Chinese government facilities in the US has warned the FCC action would force it “to end its entire resold mobile resale service in the US”. The ban on China Telecom was proposed by the FCC in April 2020, during the Trump administration, over national security concerns. The decision to implement the ban was Jessica Rosenworcel’s first when confirmed as FCC chairwoman, stating China Unicom and the two CITIC offshoots, Pacific Networks and ComNet – were next on the list.