Huawei banned by Trump a "double-edged sword"

The decision of US President Donald Trump to effectively ban Chinese telecommunications companies from doing business with US companies will impact both nations and the global technology sector, industry experts said .

Huawei and ZTE have been added to the "List of Entities" since Friday and are preventing it from buying parts or technologies from US suppliers without government approval, its equipment being considered a potential tool for Chinese espionage.

"With this executive order, US component suppliers and Chinese suppliers would be affected, it's definitely a" double-edged sword, "said Mo Jia, a research analyst at Canalys. TechRadar Middle East.

He said that Huawei's 5G hardware is certainly cheaper and that the United States could use other suppliers' products, but their cost is usually higher. It should be noted that the other two major players in this space – Ericsson and Nokia – are not US companies.

"Currently, the relationship between Huawei and European countries is stable. However, it is possible that in the future, more countries will join the US prosecution. Australia has also banned Huawei's 5G equipment. But at this point, it's unlikely that another big European country will ban Huawei because its 5G solutions are cheaper and competitive compared to other players, "he said.

Sukhdev Singh, vice president of Kantar AMRB market research and analysis services provider, said US regulators and the US government still have the power to influence the decision of other countries with which they should partner and that this could have an impact on telecommunications operators around the world.

However, he said that the adoption of local technology is becoming more mature and less and less dependent on US technology providers.

"It all depends on the belief of each government, and if the influence of governments is not there to ban Huawei, then it will not have a big impact on Huawei." If the United States and other countries ban Huawei, they will have constraints and have fewer players in the telecom space, which could harm the innovation and growth of the telecom sector, "he said. -he declares.

How important is Huawei in the 5G race?

Huawei has 283 global partners and 57 regional partners for 5G and plans to have one million base stations in the world by 2020.

According to the IPlytics online market intelligence platform, the Chinese company leads the race in the number of standard 5G technical contributions by a company. Huawei held 11,423 patents in 2018, followed by Ericsson with 10,351 and Nokia with 6,878 patents, the other two major network equipment manufacturers.

With $ 15 billion invested annually in research and development, Huawei is in the top 5 strategic positions of the 5G race and is able to mass-produce 5G chips, 5G mobile routers and a CPE (customer equipment). -local), a wireless router for the home.

Apple, Intel and Qualcomm could be under pressure

If the trade war between China and the US continues, Jia said it would surely have an impact on the global technology sector as well.

The activities of Apple, Intel and Qualcomm could be affected in the future in China, both American. However, Chinese smartphone publishers also rely on the chipset Qualcomm and if China prohibits or increases the tax on Qualcomm, Chinese players will suffer.

If the United States prohibits Huawei from buying components or software from US companies, it will surely have an impact on Huawei's global business and therefore on the industry as a whole, he said.

Huawei annually buys more than $ 11 billion worth of goods and services from US companies, according to industry reports. Jia said that Huawei had intentionally stored more components before the decree and that, "in the short term, I think Huawei still has enough." However, if Huawei fails to change the situation, the production of its 5G equipment would be affected, "he said.

Sources suggest that Huawei has developed its own operating systems for computers and smartphones, in case those provided by Microsoft and Google are no longer available. HiSilicon, Huawei's subsidiary, manufactures its own CPUs and GPUs for its smartphones.