The Huawei fight with the U.S. under the the Trump Administration could not be ending sooner. New reports indicate that the Chinese-based firm and 70 affiliates are put on an “Entity List”. The directive bans Huawei from buying any necessary equipment in the U.S. without pre-approval from the White House.
U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday May 16th, the decision would also make it difficult if not impossible for Huawei to sell some of its products because of its reliance on U.S. suppliers.
The directive hasn’t been put in effect yet.
This move comes at the time the Trump administration is influencing other countries not to use Huawei equipment in next-generation 5G networks.
The U.S. Justice Department in January unsealed an indictment of Huawei officials for supposed financial support of Iran. The department adds that it has a reasonable basis to conclude that Huawei is “engaged in activities that are contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interest.
Google suspends business with Huawei
A source told Reuters, the Mountain View-based software firm suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing.
“We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications,” Google spokesperson said.
The spokesperson however confirmed that current Huawei smartphones holders with Google apps will continue to use, download, and updates apps provided by Google.
“For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices,” the spokesperson said.
The suspension could hobble Huawei’s smartphone business outside China as the company will immediately lose access to updates to Google’s Android operating system. Future versions of Huawei smartphones that run on Android will also lose access to popular services, including the Google Play Store.
Huawei will continue to have access to the version of the Android operating system available through the open source license, known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP), that is available for free to anyone who wishes to use it.
The company will therefore stop receiving access, technical support and collaboration involving Google’s proprietary apps and services going forward.
Huawei is reported that they are working on its mobile OS claiming that it would be its contingency plan if blocked from using Android OS.[related-posts]
