President Trump To Extend License For Huawei, Allowing It To Work With US Companies

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Huawei has been caught in the US and China trade war for months. In May 2019, Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting US companies from working with the Chinese telecom company. After hurting Huawei for a few weeks, the American president gave it a respite by easing some restrictions in July. Now, that the 90-day license extension is about to be over, Reuters reports that another shorter reprieve is in order. The news agency claims that the decision will be made public on Monday. In the long run, there’s still uncertainty over Huawei’s future. To understand how the US blockade can hurt Huawei’s global business, head over to the next segment.

Huawei Is Depended On The US Technologies

Although Huawei makes in-house Kirin processors, it is based on the architecture designed by a British firm ARM. And since ARM has strong presence and business ties in the US, it decided to stop conducting business with Huawei in May 2019. This meant that Huawei could no longer use chipset based on ARM architecture on its mobiles. Huawei couldn’t even source the processors from Qualcomm and MediaTek as these two companies to use ARM’s RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) architecture. In short, if Huawei fails to strike a deal for a license, it may not get a processor for its smartphones.

Similarly, while nothing can stop Huawei from using the open-source Android platform. American search giant Google will be left with no option but to suspend Google Play and other services on Huawei smartphone. A ban from the White House will also mean that the SD Association will de-list the company along with Wi-Fi Alliance and Bluetooth Special Interest Group. In short, Huawei devices can’t offer wireless connectivity options and expandable storage.

Reason Behind The Ban

For the May, 2020 ban, the US claimed that there’s, “reasonable basis to conclude that Huawei is engaged in activities that are contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests”. The company has also been accused of Intellectual Property theft in the US. It has been widely reported that Huawei ordered its employees to steal the technology and design of T-Mobile’s Tappy robot. It hasn’t been an isolated case, as many other developed nations such as New Zealand, Australia, and Japan have fully or partially banned telecom equipment. The Australian government even advised India to keep Huawei away from its 5G telecommunications network. In return, China has warned India of ‘reverse sanctions’ if Huawei is barred from bidding for India’s 5G infrastructure.