US lifts ban on Huawei, offering temporary relief

The US Commerce Department has temporarily lifted the ban on the Chinese technology company Huawei, allowing the tech giant to purchase American made components in order to maintain existing networks and provide software update facility to its existing smartphone users within 90 days, as reported by Reuters.

The license removes the restrictions imposed by the US government and will allow companies like Google to continue working with Huawei, but the tech giant can only use Android in the same way as before, until August 19. The US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has said that the reason behind temporarily lifting the ban on Huawei is to give more time to those telecom carriers which are dependent on Huawei equipment to make alternative arrangements.

He added, “In short, this license will allow operations to continue for existing Huawei mobile phone users and rural broadband networks”.

However, the Reuters reports that the company is still prohibited from buying American components and parts to manufacture new products without license approvals that are also likely to be denied.

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The US previously imposed a ban on Huawei restricting them to do any business with the American firms and prohibited the US organizations from using telecommunications equipment manufactured by the company, and later Google followed the govt’s policy by cutting off the Android support to Huawei’s smartphones on Sunday. The U.S. government had imposed the restrictions because of Huawei’s involvement in activities contrary to national security or foreign policy interests.

What it means?

The removal of restrictions, for the time being, will allow Huawei to use Google services on its smartphones and will also allow them to continue their business with the American firms allowing software updates to continue on the handsets.

This temporary rescinding will also provide Huawei more time to prepare for the launch of its next handsets and develop Android Q software update for its existing smartphones.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said that the temporary lift on the ban carries little meaning for the company as it has been making preparations for such a scenario.

See Also: Huawei has an alternative for Android, if things go sideways with the US

Ren said in an interview, “The U.S. government’s actions at the moment underestimate our capabilities”.

He further added that Huawei was at odds with the US government, not the US firms and that the company has the ability to make the chips it buys from the US, but that doesn’t mean it will stop buying American chips.

Whereas, the U.S. Commerce Department has yet to decide whether to extend the immunity beyond 90 days.