Huawei and American carriers can breathe another sigh of relief. The Federal Government has granted Huawei a fifth license extension, allowing Huawei to work with American businesses through May 15th.
Huawei receives fifth license extension through May 15th
The move adds another 45 days to the previous extension deadline of April 1st, landing on the May 15th extension deadline date. The move is being done only because of rural American carriers. There are a large number that are still using Huawei telecom equipment. The government requested last month for carriers to start submitting their telecom equipment information to the FCC. The purpose of providing this information is to give carriers the subsidy they need to upgrade their telecom gear.
Now, with the new license extension in place, rural carriers have a little more time to get their subsidy information in. It’s a good move for American carriers that doesn’t upend them without a way to navigate the financial difficulties.
Does the new license extension change Trump’s position on Huawei?
Does Trump’s new license extension change how the US President thinks about the Shenzhen OEM? Not at all. Trump says that Huawei, like ZTE, is “a threat to national security.” Trump says Huawei is basically a spy tool for China.
There’s good reason to think this way, too. When one considers that the name Huawei itself means “the advancement of China,” and that Chinese government officials frequently attend Huawei functions as honored guests, it sends the message that Huawei and Beijing are too closely related. In fact, it could be said from such appearances that all the government has time to do is attend Huawei functions.
When one considers that Huawei attaches its logo to technological papers it publishes with the government, it sends the message that government only wants Huawei employees to publish because Huawei is an extension arm or branch of Beijing itself. There’s also an eerie connection between a number of Huawei employees, who all have military backgrounds. It’s rather reminiscent of North Korea, where the government puts all of its might into its military. Dictatorships tend to do this by default.
Huawei continues claiming its innocence despite the Trump Ban
Huawei denies the allegations, claiming that it isn’t a spy tool and never has or ever will spy on its customers. And yet, the same company that says this lives in a land where Chinese Law dictates all entities must cooperate with the government when the government requests it.
Huawei has been the political target of the Trump administration because of the suspicion surrounding the company for a long time. Trump finally placed Huawei on the US Entity List last May, forbidding the company from selling its goods and services in the US. A few days later, Google followed suit with an Android license revocation for Huawei. Since that time, the President has extended a few licenses to Huawei to allow the company to update its Android devices and allow small carriers in rural areas to upgrade their Huawei equipment or continue to use the existing telecom gear.