Huawei Gets US Reprieve, Nokia Lets CTO Dangle

The future looks a little brighter for Huawei after President Donald Trump made an apparent U-turn and said that U.S. companies could continue to sell products to the China-based vendor. The move effectively reverses a ban imposed by the U.S. government on sales by U.S. companies to Huawei, although it seems that much still remains unclear. The president’s reasoning was that the ban was unfair to U.S. suppliers that wanted to sell products for use in Huawei smartphones, but he seemed to apply this only to equipment “where there’s no great national security problem with it.” That would seem to indicate there will be continuing opposition by the U.S. government to the use of Huawei equipment in future 5G networks. Despite this opposition, Huawei still seems to be picking up 5G contracts, and recently flagged its 50th contract win. European countries have not necessarily been bowing to U.S. calls to exclude Huawei from 5G networks. Following the example of Germany and the United Kingdom, the Netherlands appears to be the latest to avoid expressly banning Huawei or any other supplier from its 5G infrastructure over espionage fears.