Two of Japan’s top mobile phone carriers yesterday said they would delay releasing new handsets made by Huawei Technologies Co (華為) after a Washington ban on US companies selling technology to the Chinese tech giant.
KDDI Corp and Softbank Corp, the country’s No. 2 and No. 3 carriers respectively, said the decision was taken to give them time to assess the impact of the US ban.
The country’s biggest carrier, NTT Docomo, also announced it was suspending preorders for a new Huawei handset, but stopped short of halting the release itself.
Softbank had been due to release a Huawei-made smartphone tomorrow, but halted the release “because we are currently trying to confirm if our customers will be able to use the equipment with a sense of safety,” company spokesman Hiroyuki Mizukami said.
“We still don’t know when we will be able to start selling,” he said, adding that the carrier is concerned about “everything” linked to the US ban.
Citing national security, US President Donald Trump last week effectively banned US companies from supplying Huawei and affiliates with the critical components that have helped it grow into the world’s largest supplier of telecom networking equipment and second-biggest smartphone maker.
He declared a “national emergency” empowering him to blacklist companies seen as “an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States” — a move analysts said was clearly aimed at Huawei.
However, US officials this week issued a 90-day reprieve on the ban on dealing with Huawei, saying breathing space is needed to avoid huge disruption.
KDDI said its release of the Huawei P30 litePremium planned this month would also be postponed, with spokeswoman Reiko Nakamura saying: “We’re checking the facts on how [the US decision] was made and its impact.”
NTT Docomo announced shortly afterward that it was halting pre-orders of a Huawei handset due to be released this summer, without giving a reason for the decision.
The risks for Huawei came into focus this week when Google, whose Android operating system powers most of the world’s smartphones, said it would cut ties with Huawei as a result of the ban.
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