Huawei is having difficulty bypassing US-impose sanctions intended to block the Chinese tech giants from gaining access to semiconductors but is still able to work with 5G network clients in Europe, a senior executive said on Sunday.
While speaking to Austrian newspaper Kurier, Huwaei’s vice-president for Europe, Abraham Liu, said that the mobile telecommunications equipment and smartphone manufacturer was still on a search for "a solution" to help millions of customers after Google was banned from any support for Huawei's phone models using the Android operating system.
“Since the US sanctions last year, US manufacturers of semiconductors are no longer allowed to supply us so our previous US partners can no longer work with us. Since August it has become even more difficult”, said Liu.
He accused the United States of “blackmailing” chipmakers into dropping their Huawei connections. Washington has accused Huawei of using the equipment to spy on the citizens of recipient countries on behalf of China - a claim which both the telecoms company and Beijing have denied.
“Nevertheless, we are confident that we can continue to serve our European customers in the 5G sector because of many preparations and upfront investments with the most advanced technology”, Liu said but did not expand.
“As for private customers, cell phone owners, we see great difficulties. There are 90 million European Huawei users. Google is no longer allowed to work with Huawei, so Google will no longer publish updates for Huawei smartphones with the Android operating system”, he added.
“We are still looking for a solution".
Liu also explained that Huawei is not "new to Europe" and that its prolonged time in the market has subjected the company to stringent checks and provider ratings.
He also cited the American "effort" to achieve technological supremacy and that Washington's policy of trade war towards Huawei is due to the success of Chinese firms.
While pressure from the US to prevent any supplies of major telecoms equipment from Huawei builds, Orange ORAN.PA and Proximus PROX.BR opted for Nokia NOKIA.HE to aid in their construction of 5G infrastructure in Belgium.
"High-risk" vendors have been put under increasing review by EU members. Stronger measures mean that Huawei activity is subject to greater oversight examination and could see more European operators removing it from the networks, some analysts claim.
This follows an announcement earlier this year by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the UK would remove Huawei technology from the 5G Network by 2027.