US Carriers Under Pressure to Cut Ties with Huawei Amid Security Fears

Huawei, the third largest smartphone manufacturer by sales has hit a huge wall. The company had intentions of launching their latest flagship phone, the Mate 10 in the United States and had already secured deals with AT&T and Verizon, two of the US’ biggest telcos.

Well, in a turn of events, Reuters reports that the US Congress has been lobbying AT&T to abandon the deal citing national security concerns. The pressure against the deal worked as both AT&T and Verizon abandoned ship and walked away.

US Congress did not stop there, they went ahead to beat the horse while it’s down and urged U.S. firms not to be involved with Huawei if they want to do business with the government. AT&T has also been told to end its collaboration with Huawei over standards for the high-speed next generation 5G network, reports Reuters. To add salt to the injury, AT&T’s subsidiary, Cricket has also been told to stop selling Huawei’s smartphones.

According to the congress, their fear is that any data from a Huawei device, for example about the location of the phone’s user, would be available to Chinese government intelligence services. “The next wave of wireless communication has enormous economic and national security implications. China’s participation in setting the standards and selling the equipment raises many national security issues that demand strict and prompt attention,” said Michael Wessel, a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

However, it’s not just Huawei, ZTE has also faced barriers when it comes to doing business in the US and China Mobile, the world’s largest telco applied for a license to enter the US market back in 2011 and to date, the matter is still pending at the Federal Communications Commission.