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US government strong arms telcos to abandon Huawei

by on31 January 2018


Verizon surrenders

US telcos are under government pressure to stop offering to sell Huawei phones.

Bloomberg reports that Verizon has dropped all plans to sell phones by Chinese manufacturer Huawei due to pressure from the US government. The decision comes after AT&T walked away from a deal earlier this month to sell Huawei smartphones in the US.

Huawei devices still work on both companies' networks, but direct sales would've allowed it to reach more consumers than it can through third parties. The move is apparently based on Trump's concern about Chinese spying, although so far no one has seen any evidence that Huawei has been spying on anyone. 

The move might also put a spanner in the works for the development of 5G. Huawei is pushing to be among the first to offer 5G-capable phone, but the device may be considered off limits to US carriers who are beginning to offer the next-generation service this year in a few cities.

In fact, in the UK the outfit has been given the all clear with a government report suggesting that risks from using equipment provided by the company have been “sufficiently mitigated”.

A cyber security evaluation centre in Banbury was established in 2010 by Huawei to take apart the physical hardware and software used in the UK to mitigate risks to national security.

In the report for the national security adviser, the centre’s oversight board said the “technical assurance” provided by Banbury was of “sufficient scope and quality to meet its obligations”.

 

 

Last modified on 31 January 2018
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