The US government recently made a decision to ban Huawei from using US technology and it is already beginning to have some ripple effects which are far more than we anticipated. As a result of the decision, many companies have cut ties with the Chinese giant, the most recent being ARM. There is no doubt that these developments will affect the sales of Huawei phones outside China. While Huawei is currently coming up with strategies to get themselves out of this dead end, two major UK carriers who had concluded plans to sell Huawei 5G phones when they roll out their 5G networks have decided to put a halt to those plans.
Earlier today, EE, a UK carrier has made announcements that its 5G network will be launched next time week as the first in the UK. EE also released a list of the 5G phones that will be on offer. They include the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, LG V50 ThinQ 5G, and the Oppo Reno 5G. The Huawei Mate 20 X which was the first 5G phone by Huawei was originally on the list. However, it says that the release of 5G for the Huawei Mate 20 X was put on hold because of the uncertainty which surrounds Huawei’s situation at the moment. According to a statement by the UK carrier, it will not launch Huawei’s 5G offerings until it receives “the information and confidence” that customers who buy the smartphones will be supported “for the lifetime they’ve got the device.” this statement was made in reference to Google making an announcement that current Huawei models will no longer receive security updates. Although it has postponed the decision temporarily, the future still remains uncertain.
Another UK carrier, Vodafone has made an announcement saying that it will be putting Huawei Mate 20 X 5G pre-orders on hold for the time being. It also stated that the issue is temporary while there is still much uncertainty regarding new 5G devices by Huawei. Although other carriers in Europe haven’t made any announcements regarding their decision, we expect this to spread in no distant time unless the US and China come to an agreement before the 90 days extension expires.
