Federal Communications Commission "FCC XX-XXX" STATEMENT OF CHAIRWOMAN JESSICA ROSENWORCEL Re: In the Matter of Truphone, Inc., Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture, FCC 22-30, EB-IHD-20-00031626 (Apr. 21, 2022). In 2020 the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is part of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, issued a report on the threats that foreign-owned carriers pose to our communications networks. In the process, the Subcommittee identified a problem that requires more attention. Across the federal government there has not been enough oversight to safeguard our networks against evolving threats after the issuance of a license. After all, our interest in security does not stop with a one-time grant of authority. We need to regularly review what has come before to ensure that every service provider subject to the Communications Act complies with the law. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have taken this problem head on. We now have a clear process for revoking a foreign carrier’s existing authorization when our national security colleagues recommend that we do so. You can see this in the actions we took with China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks, and ComNet. We are also working with our federal partners to establish a broader review of foreign carrier authorizations to provide service in the United States. As part of this effort, I directed the International Bureau to review all past grants of international Section 214 applications and in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, we launched an internal assessment of Russian ownership of telecommunications interests in the United States. This Notice of Apparent Liability is a product of that review. Through our increased oversight of past grants of authority we discovered that Truphone filed inaccurate information with this agency about its ownership structure and control. This violates our rules. It undermines our ability to assess foreign investment in licenses under the Communications Act. It denies us the information we require to make basic assessments about national security. We make clear today that this is unacceptable and we hold those responsible to account. I’m grateful to my colleagues Commissioner Carr and Commissioner Starks for working to strengthen this enforcement action. Thank you to the staff who worked on this effort, including Jeffrey Brown, Rizwan Chowdhry, Loyaan Egal, Georgina Feigen, Pamela Gallant, Jeffrey Gee, William Knowles-Kellett, Kalun Lee, Keith Morgan, Deborah Ridley, and Raphael Sznajder from the Enforcement Bureau; Kathleen Collins, Kimberly Cook, David Krech, and Fara Mohsenikolour from the International Bureau; Patrick Brogan, Virginia Metallo, and Michelle Schaefer from the Office of Economics and Analytics; and Terry Cavanaugh, Richard Mallen, Joel Rabinovitz, and William Richardson from the Office of General Counsel. 2