In a tussle that has been ongoing between Huawei and the United States government, the US has been insisting other countries should ban Huawei telco equipment as well. Despite the unclear extent to which the Huawei ban was loosened, the ban is still practical and moving forward Huawei is still under the US Entity list.
Undeterred by the ban, the Chinese tech giant is still the leading company in 5G commercial contracts according to reports released in May. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa doesn’t want the country to be left out in the cold when it comes to the next-generation technology of wireless communications, 5G.
Speaking at a summit in Johannesburg, the president acknowledged the use of Huawei to leverage on the stalled trade talks between the US and China. He stated the war between China and the US “will affect their (our) own telecommunications sector, particularly the efforts to roll out the 5G network.”
He reported the increased concerns of the South African telecommunication companies over the Washington clampdown on Huawei.
In a letter to the South African president, the telcos wrote: “this tussle between the US and China around the company called Huawei is going to hurt us because we can’t go to 5G and only Huawei can lead us to 5G.”
In response to the matter, the SA president emphasized the government’s full support for Huawei in a quest to take the country to the next generation of wireless technologies 5G. ”South Africa can’t afford to be held back economically due to the US-China fight” he added.
China and the US are expected to resume their trade talks soon after which the Huawei issue will follow where the final fate of the company with the US will be determined.
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Featured image credits: TRTWORLD
