Telecom Committee

The ad hoc review process that has governed investments in the US telecommunications services sector for more than 20 years was formalized and expanded by executive order in 2020. This order specifically created the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector (the Telecom Committee, formerly referred to as Team Telecom) and charged it with assisting the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in its public interest review of national security and law enforcement concerns that may be raised by foreign participation in the US telecommunications services sector. The order designates the US Departments of Defense and Homeland Security as formal members and names the US Department of Justice as the chair. Certain other agencies and branches of the US government are designated as informal advisors to the Committee, including the Departments of State, Treasury and Commerce and the Director of National Intelligence. The FCC has since formalized and developed standards for this process through its own order.

Under various authorities, the Telecom Committee has the broad authority to review the national security, law enforcement, foreign policy and trade policy implications of the following:

• New applications to provide international telecommunications service to or from the United States;

• Applications to assign or transfer control of an existing license to provide telecommunications service to or from the United States;

• New applications to land and operate an international undersea cable that touches US territory;

• Applications to assign or transfer control of an existing submarine cable landing license; and,

• Petitions to exceed the statutory foreign ownership limits for broadcast and common carrier wireless licensees, including common carrier satellite earth stations.