After a horrid 24 hours, there’s finally some respite for Huawei. The US Commerce Department has given the company a 90-day extension to provide support for existing handsets and network components.
The department has issued a “temporary general license ” to the company “necessary to maintain and support existing and currently fully operational networks and equipment, including software updates and patches, subject to legally binding contracts and agreements” that expires on August 19.
To recap, after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban Huawei last week, US tech companies like Google, Qualcomm, and Intel ceased business with the Chinese company over the last few days.
In response, Huawei issued a statement saying it will “continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are still in stock globally.”
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Last night, the company’s CFO, Ren Zhengfei, said that the US politicians underestimate Huawei’s strength. He added that the 90-day extension doesn’t have much impact and the company’s ready to tackle the ban. Zhengfei also noted that Huawei’s already in talks with Google to create a response plan for its handset business.
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