Technology companies cut markets with Huawei, slowing deployment of 5G technology

Some of the biggest tech companies in the world have asked their employees to stop talking about technical and technical standards with their counterparts in Huawei Technologies in response to the recent US blacklist of the Chinese technology company, according to people close to the record .

Intel and Qualcomm chip makers, InterDigital Wireless Inc., a mobile phone research company, and LG Uplus, a South Korean carrier, have prevented their employees from having informal conversations with Huawei, the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones. telecommunications equipment, said these sources.

These discussions are part of the routine of international meetings where engineers come together to set technical standards for communication technologies, including the next generation of mobile phone networks called 5G.

The US Department of Commerce has not banned contacts between companies and Huawei. May 16, the agency put Huawei on a blacklist, preventing it from dealing with US companies without government approval, and then a few days later, it allowed US companies to interact with Huawei in the regulatory bodies until August, "if necessary for the development of the 5G standards." The Commerce Department reiterated its position Friday in response to a question from Reuters.

Nevertheless, at least a handful of major US and foreign technology companies have asked its employees to limit certain forms of direct interaction, they said, as they sought to avoid any potential problems with the US government.

Intel and Qualcomm said they provided compliance instructions to employees, but declined to comment further.

An InterDigital spokesman said the latter had provided engineers with instructions to ensure that the company complied with US regulations.

A manager of LG Uplus said that the company "voluntarily refrains from interacting with Huawei's workers, apart from the need to meet for installation problems or maintenance of the company." 39, network equipment ".

Huawei did not comment.

According to several industry experts, the new restrictions could slow down the launch of 5G, which should power everything from high-speed video transmission to autonomous cars.

At a meeting on 5G standards in Newport Beach, California last week, participants expressed concern to Reuters.

that the long-standing cooperation between engineers, which is essential to enable telephones and networks to connect with the world, could be a victim of what one participant described as a "technological war" between the United States and China.

A representative of a European company that has introduced rules against interactions with Huawei has described those involved in the development of 5G as "shaken". "It could push everyone around, and we need cooperation to reach 5G, it should be a global market," said the manager.

While many small telecom workers said they were not told to avoid discussions with Huawei at standards meetings, many suppliers continue to support existing agreements with Huawei. It is unclear to what extent communications with Huawei have been reduced, if at all, in the technology sector.

"There has been a lot of misunderstanding in what I have seen and heard from clients and colleagues, regarding the restrictions imposed by the (Department of Commerce)," said Doug Jacobson, a specialist lawyer. in export control based in Washington.

He said that companies banning their employees from contacting Huawei were "excessive, because restrictions do not prevent communication, but only technology transfer".

Huawei, whose US claims that the equipment could be used by China, has become a central figure in the trade war between the two largest economies in the world. Huawei has repeatedly denied being controlled by the Chinese government, the military or the intelligence services.

China, the United States and European companies have already divided over standards for Wi-Fi, cell networks and other technologies, and tariff agreements between Beijing and Washington have raised fears another bifurcation.

Huawei is a leading player in various global organizations that define technical specifications. As one of the world's leading manufacturers of devices such as smartphones and essential network components such as routers and switches, Huawei will have to be at the table of standardization to ensure a seamless customer experience when networks 5G are becoming predominant, engineers and experts have said.

Systems engineers and architects representing their employers at meetings of the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), a global consortium of industry associations to define 5G specifications by March 2020, are organizing often general and formal discussions in smaller and less documented sessions as they try. find an agreement with his rivals.

But at the 3GPP meeting in California last week, one of the three group presidents, Balazs Bertenyi of Nokia, told attendees that a larger part of these so-called "offline" conversations that usually would be documented by the standards body with notes and other public records. .

This is the "practical" implication of the new rules of the US Department of Commerce, cautioned by the industry despite the waiver granted to negotiations on 5G, he said.

Companies want to limit informal exchanges, in which their engineers feel more comfortable discussing proprietary technology with their competitors to persuade them of why their research or innovations are more valuable, said the sources.

A separate standards body, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), has limited the ability of Huawei engineers to participate in peer reviews of its publications, prompting criticism from some Chinese sector and elsewhere.

The organization, which declined to comment beyond the generic statements on its website, then backtracked a few days later after declaring it had received the go-ahead from the US Department of Commerce regarding the issue of peer review. He did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

"Huawei is not just a company.They are, in many ways, the leader in 5G technology.It is very difficult to exclude them, so this may disrupt the entire project," he said. said Jorge Contreras, a law professor at the University of Utah and a member of the IEEE.

"If the idea is to create a non-Chinese 5G, I'm not sure it's possible, even if it is, would that be so good?"