Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 21-05-2019

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

While the US government has temporarily eased some trade restrictions imposed on China’s Huawei, a move that sought to minimise disruption for the telecom company’s customers around the world, a tech expert has told Radio Islam local Huawei users have nothing to worry about yet.

Google on Monday suspended business operations with Huawei effective immediately, a forced move that will have a dramatic impact on Huawei devices across the globe.

The suspension could hobble Huawei’s smartphone business outside China as the tech giant will immediately lose access to updates to Google’s Android operating system.

Speaking to Radio Islam, Deputy editor at Business Insider SA Phillip de Wet says the decision by Google is very complex and doesn’t currently affect anyone

“Both companies have told us that it does not affect current handsets in the field anywhere in the world. So for the time being your handset will continue to update, it will continue to work as normal. As best we’ve been able to figure out the legal ramifications in South Africa that handset should continue on an application level, it should continue to operate normally.”

The US Commerce Department says it will allow Huawei to purchase American-made goods in order to maintain existing networks and provide software updates to existing Huawei handsets.

However the company is still prohibited from buying American parts and components to manufacture new products without licence approvals that likely will be denied.

The US government says it imposed the restrictions because of Huawei’s involvement in activities contrary to national security or foreign policy interests.

Listen to the interview with Phillip de Wet