Cybersecurity Policy Report, FCC Proposes Fines Near $200K Each for Hytera, ZTE Over Faulty Filings, (Aug 28, 2026)

By Lynn Stanton

The FCC has proposed that Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. pay forfeitures of $188,491 each for failing to file the full names and identifying information for each or their respective associated entities, such as subsidiaries and affiliates, that are listed on the agency’s “covered list” of equipment and services deemed to pose a national security risk.

Hytera and ZTE were both in the first group of five entities whose products and services the FCC placed on the covered list in 2021. In 2022, as part of an order prohibiting the authorization, importation, or marketing of equipment on the covered list, the Commission adopted a rule (section 2.903) requiring entities named on the covered list to provide contact information for themselves and any affiliates or subsidiaries that produce the covered equipment.

After Hytera and ZTE submitted the contact information, Commission staff reviewed publicly available information from sources including “company profiles on Bloomberg, Dun & Bradstreet, business conventions and expositions, university procurement advisories and disclosures, and the Companies’ own websites,” and found that “[t]he information provided in each Company’s filings widely differs from publicly available information which lacks the transparency intended by the Secure Networks Act requiring the Commission to publish, and update, the Covered List as defined in the 2019 NDAA,” the FCC said in the notice of apparent liability (NAL) and order adopted yesterday and released today, FCC, Notice of Apparent Liability and Order, File Nos. EB-SED-25-00038006 and EB-SED-25-00038008.

Hytera initially identified only three entities in its section 2.903(d) filing and subsequently identified 49 entities in response to a letter of inquiry, according to the NAL and order. ZTE initially identified only one entity in its section 2.903(d) filing and subsequently identified 11 entities in response to a letter of inquiry

“We find that Hytera and ZTE apparently willfully and repeatedly violated section 2.903(d) of the Commission’s rules by failing to timely submit to the Commission the full names of, and identifying information for, all their subsidiaries and affiliates that produce covered communications equipment, as required of all Named Entities, or to submit updated information to the Commission pursuant to section 2.903(d)(3) of the Commission’s rules. Although the Companies each submitted a list of affiliates and subsidiaries that produce covered communications equipment by the initial March 8, 2023 deadline, their submissions were demonstrably incomplete and therefore apparently violated section 2.903(d) of the Commission’s rules,” the FCC said.

Each company has 30 days to pay its forfeiture or file a statement seeking reduction or cancellation of the forfeiture. They also each must submit within 30 days “a written statement updating their most recent section 2.903(d) submissions to the Commission with the full names and contact information for all of their subsidiaries and affiliates identified on the Covered List as producing covered communications equipment.”

News: FederalLegislation LitigationEnforcement DataSecurity