By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday it will allow new models of Chinese toy drones to be imported into the United States.
In December, the FCC said it was barring imports of all new models of foreign-made drones and critical components, including from China’s DJI and Autel, saying they pose unacceptable risks to U.S. national security. The FCC has since allowed for the import of some new models of drones.
The FCC said it was acting on a Pentagon determination that national security risks are not posed by “unsophisticated, low-risk toys” that lack the “organic capabilities and features in range, endurance, sensing, payload, connectivity, and data collection and storage” found in traditional drones.
Washington has taken a series of actions to crack down on Chinese tech products, and the FCC is considering further restrictions.
The FCC said there were strict limits on what constitutes a toy drone, including that they can be no more than 150 grams (5.29 ounces) and have operations limited to line-of-sight equal to or less than 100 meters (328 feet), no connectivity or network capability, no photo/video camera or sensors capable of surveillance or data gathering and no more than 10 minutes of flight time.
Last month, the FCC said it would allow Chinese drones and consumer routers sold in the United States to get critical software updates at least through the end of 2028.
The agency is separately considering whether to ban the import of Chinese equipment from a group of manufacturers after previously barring the import or sale of their new models in 2022.
The FCC is also proposing to prohibit U.S. telecommunications carriers from interconnecting with Chinese telecom firms deemed national security risks. That would ban Chinese telecom companies from owning data centers in the United States.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul, Rod Nickel)
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