Huawei’s temporary extension from the US Commerce Department to freely trade with US companies was set to end on 19 August but is now expected to be extended by 90 days. A Reuters report suggests it is so Huawei can continue to service its existing customers while the trade dispute rumbles on.
It means that Huawei can now continue to support network connections and software updates to its smartphone handsets worldwide given that they run Google’s Android operating system. A US company, Google would be unable to trade with Huawei if a ban were to come into place, calling into question the future of Huawei on a global level.
A 90-day extension means Huawei can now trade with US companies until 17 November 2019.
Huawei recently unveiled its own operating system Harmony OS that was originally rumoured to be a direct replacement for Android. But it seems that isn’t the case as Harmony looks more like a platform for IoT systems and networks.
The company has unexpectedly become the central Chinese figure in the US-China trade war spurred on by the words and actions of President Trump. A source in the Reuters report claims Trump will discuss Huawei this week with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Huawei was originally blacklisted onto the US’ entity list of banned companies earlier in the year, the US citing security concerns over the Chinese telecoms giant’s network equipment and consumer handsets. But without any public proof of such, the argument has rumbled on and made Huawei a worldwide household name for all the wrong reasons.
Even with this temporary extension, Huawei is still required to request special licenses to trade with US companies.
We’ve reviewed a lot of Huawei devices and they are all excellent – particularly since 2018’s P20 Pro, which raised the bar of quality considerably. The ongoing trade dispute means Huawei is at real risk of having its stratospheric growth stunted if its phones can’t continue to run Android.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.