The president of the United States Donald Trump has extended his executive order banning US companies from working with or buying telecommunications equipment from companies deemed a national security risk until May 2021, via Reuters.
This means Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE, will have to wait even longer to sell products in the US or work with companies like Google or ARM for critical software and licenses.
The White House issued its original executive order in 2019, barring US companies from doing business with Huawei due to national security concerns about the Chinese firm supplying equipment for network infrastructure (particularly as the US undergoes its ongoing rollout for 5G).
But since the order was issued in May 2019, the full ban hasn’t actually taken effect yet. While Huawei hasn’t been able to work with companies like Google on new devices, the company has gotten a series of temporary general licenses from the Commerce Department that have allowed it to still support existing hardware with software updates.
That state of affairs may be about to change: The most recent 45-day extension for the temporary license agreement is about to expire on May 15th. Neither Huawei nor the Commerce Department has indicated yet whether another extension of the temporary license will be granted.
However, even after being blacklisted and not being allowed to put Google apps on its newest phones, Huawei is set to release a new flagship with Google services inbuilt.
