The Huawei troubles with the U.S. government are far from over. Lately, heat is building up, but the U.S. Commerce Department still considered offering the Chinese tech giant another temporary license. It’s different this time, however.
Unlike the previous 90-day reprieves, the Chinese tech giant has only been offered half of that. The current reprieve, just like the previous ones, means Huawei will continue doing business with select US-based companies and support its telco customers in rural America – the primary reason, according to the regulator.
According to the Commerce Department, the extension will “prevent interruption of existing network communication systems in rural U.S. regions and permit global network security measures.”
The regulator says the extension was “necessary.”
Huawei will, therefore, continue to support its telco customers in rural America “temporarily” before they seek alternatives.
So far Huawei has been surviving on temporary licenses to continue doing business with its U.S. allies since May. Luckily for them, they have been offered reprieves three times consecutively in the past – in May, August and November.
This comes few days after the U.S. government accused Huawei of leveraging backdoors meant for law enforcement agencies to access global mobile networks. The company denied this allegation.
The US Justice Department yesterday charged Huawei, and two of its subsidiaries, for using “fraud and deception” to steal technology from local companies. Responding to the indictment, Huawei viewed this as an attempt to damage its reputation irrevocably.
“The government will not prevail on these charges which we will prove to be both unfounded and unfair,” said Huawei in a statement.
