So the trade ban with HUAWEI has been going on for several months now and nothing seems to be indicating that there would be an overturning of the decision. Every other person outside of the United States of America (U.S.A.) was hoping that the situation will get better and somehow the decision overturned though. Why? HUAWEI devices without Android is like eating Egg Mayo Sandwich without the Eggs. They are still good, just not as good.
It looks like all hopes for HUAWEI to be cleared of that trade ban is further and further away from reality though. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is U.S.A.’s version of MCMC for Malaysia, or if you are not in any of these countries – they are an independent body that regulates and certifies electronic items that involves communications. So your routers, modems, televisions, and even smartphones have to go through their certifications and ‘okay’ before being sold; they have declared HUAWEI and ZTE to be national security threats for the state. Sounds bad? It is bad.
While there were restrictions to HUAWEI telecommunication gears in the United States, there were no full ban to be set yet at the time. Thanks to the declaration from FCC, HUAWEI and ZTE items can no longer be purchased by all government linked companies or using the Universal Service Funds (USF) subsidy. That also means that we are not going to get Google’s Play Store on the HUAWEI devices anytime soon.
According to the chairman of FFC, Ajit Pai the Bureau has found evidence that both HUAWEI and ZTE having “close ties” to the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s military. But it is not just down to the links between the company and the government that becomes an issue. FCC also cited that the Chinese law dictates that these telecommunication giants that operates in China are obligated to share data and cooperate with China’s various intelligence services whenever the need arises.
If what FCC claims to have found is true, it becomes a huge privacy and data security breach potential. HUAWEI and ZTE have repeatedly denied the claims that they are a threat to the United States’ national security. To be fair, they have denied the existence of a certain backdoor that feeds information from all their telecommunication devices and services to the Chinese government. We do not know how much of the law aspect is true. We are not living in China after all.
Still, the biggest impact is still on HUAWEI’s smartphones. We have always enjoyed their smartphones. They have made great smartphones like the HUAWEI P40 Pro we recently reviewed. Sadly, the lack of Google’s Play Store on their devices crippled the devices so much that we find them an absolute nightmare to deal with on a day to day basis at times.
So far HUAWEI and ZTE has not responded to the claims. We remain hopeful to HUAWEI’s response to the claims. That, and also hoping that HUAWEI finds a way to get the Play Store ecosystem on their devices that are still running Android anyway.
