Huawei has been banned from doing business with U.S-based companies thanks to a de facto blacklisting of Huawei by the U.S. Commerce Department. However, the company might soon get to do business once again after a Bloomberg report claimed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said licenses will be issued ‘very shortly’.
There have been 260 requests for licenses to do business with Huawei, or more than what the Commerce Department would’ve expected, according to the report. And while Ross cautioned against thinking all the requests will be rubber stamped, few expections can be made.
While the report doesn’t mention which companies applied for the licenses, Google is one company that has been adversely affected by the trade ban. Huawei is not allowed use Google apps in its smartphones as long as the ban is in effect. It will also lose the ability to push out updates to its existing smartphones once the temporary license expires. We can assume that a permanent license will let the two companies resume business.
Telecom companies in the US might not be given a license, though. The major reason stated by the US for banning Huawei is on account of the company snooping on US citizens on behalf of the Chinese government using cellular equipment. It seems the companies that will eventually get the license will have little to do with cellular or telecom infrastructure.