Huawei In Early Talks With US Companies For 5G Platform Licensing

Since the ban, Huawei has been finding ways to stay in business with the West in any way it can. This time, the Chinese tech giant confirms that some U.S. companies are interested in using its 5G technology. Previously, the company was only considering this move after the U.S. government put Huawei on its Entity List.

According to Reuters, Huawei has confirmed that it is early-stage talks with some U.S. companies to license its 5G technology. Prior to this announcement, Huawei confirmed that it’s willing to also share its patents, blueprints, production engineering language, and other 5G related technology to companies that will accept them. However, we’ve yet to know if this setup is part of the early talks its having right now.

Huawei senior vice president and board director, Vincent Pang, said that the company is both in talks with long-term deals and one-time service with other companies. However, Huawei refused to identify which companies are willing to work with them.

While Huawei is mum about its progress with the deals, Reuters has confirmed that it has an edge against its European rivals such as Nokia and Ericsson. Huawei is said to offer a cheaper price for the 5G technology and infrastructure. As of now, Indian companies are considering to use Huawei 5G technology albeit the country is also pressured to reject the Huawei deal.

These potential U.S.-based companies that want to use Huawei 5G’s tech comes from the country’s lack of 5G infrastructure. No company in the U.S. has a focus on 5G technology and will have to rely on these European and Chinese companies to set it up. Setting the 5G infrastructure in the U.S. paves the way for support on the upcoming 5G-enabled smartphones.

Huawei’s silence could be a part of its efforts to keep a presence in the U.S. after its government included them in the Entity List. Companies in this list are barred from working with any U.S.-based company which has severely affected Huawei. Since Google has the Android operating system, Huawei is currently recovering and finding a way to somehow get the OS on their devices again.