China Telecom plans to continue with some U.S. services after the FCC withdrew its permission from Reuters

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China Telecom (NYSE 🙂 The U.S. unit said Wednesday it intends to continue providing some services in the U.S. in 2022 after a U.S. regulator withdrew its license to operate telecommunications in the country, citing national security.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in October to revoke the permit. The FCC said China Telecom (Americas) (CTA) is “under the control, influence and control of the Chinese government.”

In a letter to the FCC, the company said the services it wants to pursue are not under an FCC order requiring it to stop the operations of its regular carriers. The CTA argued that the services are performed as a private carrier.

CTA provides mobile service to consumers under the brand name “CTExcel”. The FCC said CTExcel customers should switch to a new provider by Jan. 3.

A CTA spokesman said Wednesday that the company “will continue to operate its private carrier business in the U.S. after the Jan. 3 deadline.”

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court denied CTA’s emergency offer to suspend the FCC’s order.

In a letter to FCC President Jessica Rosenworcel, released on Monday and Wednesday, a lawyer from China Telecom (America) said that the FCC had rejected the collection requests and that the company planned to continue with some services from January 3.

In the absence of the FCC’s “final decision and factual decision”, the company intends to continue to provide certain services “to the private carrier … to comply with its contractual obligations and to prevent unjustified interruption of customer operations.”

Rosenworcel’s office did not immediately comment.

China Telecom, which has been licensed to provide U.S. telecommunications services for 20 years, had more than 335 million subscribers worldwide in 2019. It also provides services to Chinese government facilities in the United States.

In March, the FCC began efforts to remove China Unicom (NYSE 🙂 Americas, Pacific Networks, and its entire ComNet subsidiary from its authorization to provide U.S. telecommunications services.