Don’t Ban Test Labs in China, Tech Industry Says
The FCC estimates 75 percent of new wireless devices are tested in the country.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2025 – The Federal Communications Commission is taking input on whether to ban equipment certification labs located in China and other “foreign adversary countries.” The tech and telecom trade groups said that would be a bad idea.
“Banning testing facilities or certification bodies based solely on their physical location, rather than on evidence of ownership or control by a prohibited entity, would unnecessarily reduce global testing capacity,” six industry groups wrote in a Thursday letter to the agency. “Such an approach could delay introduction of life-enhancing and economy-invigorating innovations, raise costs, deter investment and invite reciprocal restrictions on U.S. companies abroad.
The filing was signed by INCOMPAS, the Telecommunications Infrastructure Association, CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.
New wireless equipment must be tested and certified before being sold in the United States and the FCC must approve of the groups doing that work, with labs getting reassessed every two years. The agency largely checks to make sure a standards setting body or a government agency has cleared a given lab.
The FCC moved in May to bar from the program any labs and certification bodies controlled in part by the Chinese government and other entities deemed national security threats. That order also sought comments on whether the agency should ban labs located in adversarial countries, including China, and on how to promote more testing facilities in the United States.
“We are concerned, based on the record before us, that limiting our restriction to [telecommunications certification bodies], test labs, and laboratory accreditation bodies that are owned, or under the direction or control, of prohibited entities, may not be sufficient to address the threats to the integrity of our equipment authorization processes posed by malign foreign actors,” the FCC wrote in the May order.
The agency estimates about 75 percent of all newly certified devices are tested in labs located in China.
On Sept. 9, the agency began the process of de-authorizing its first batch of seven labs under the new rules, which recently went into effect. Four other labs had their certifications expire since the rules were adopted, and the agency said it would not renew them.
The FCC says each of those labs is owned or controlled by the Chinese government.
In an interview with Broadband Breakfast Managing Editor Ted Hearn on Friday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr downplayed the industry concerns and said he wanted to ensure the process was trustworthy.
“China diplomats didn't reach out, but I saw the Consumer Technology Association lodged a complaint, so I don't know how much difference there is between the two of them sometimes,” he said. “We think roughly 75 percent of all electronics were tested in China. And it wouldn't be a bad thing if as a result of this, more U.S.-based test labs were built and more of the testing takes place in the U.S. I'd like to see that result.”
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