Report: Trump to Ban Huawei Tech in US Wireless Networks

President Trump is preparing to ban Chinese vendor Huawei from selling its telecommunication equipment to US wireless carriers, according to Politico.

The president will sign an executive order instituting the ban before MWC19 in Barcelona later month, Politico says, citing unnamed sources.

Trump reportedly wants to protect US 5G networks from state-sponsored Chinese spying. Announcing the ban before MWC signals to the telecommunication industry that cybersecurity is a top priority for the US, Politico says.

Huawei has repeatedly denied that its telecommunication technology poses a threat to the US security. There is also no evidence that Huawei's networking equipment has ever been used to spy for the Chinese government.

Nevertheless, US officials are worried that China could one day compel Huawei to eavesdrop on its customers. It's not as easy for a Chinese company to say no to its government as it might be for, say, Apple to deny an FBI request here in the US. As result, the latest defense funding bill forbids US government agencies from buying Huawei technology.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

On top of all this, the US recently uncovered evidence of Huawei trying to commit fraud and intellectual property theft. Last month, the US Department of Justice charged the Chinese company with trying to steal a robot design from T-Mobile and attempting to sidestep US sanctions on Iran.

"We have to carefully consider the risks if we are going to allow [Huawei] into our telecommunication networks," FBI Director Christopher Wray (above) said at the time. Huawei denies any wrongdoing.

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Governments in Europe, Japan, and Australia are also considering or have ordered bans on Huawei equipment. That's bad news for the Chinese company, which makes a large portion of its revenue from selling telecommunication equipment to power wireless networks

So far, Huawei hasn't responded to Politico's report. But Trump's executive order might spark a response from the Chinese government, which is currently locked in trade negotiations with the White House.

Implementing a ban might also be easier said than done. The largest telecommunication carrier in Europe, Deutsche Telekom, has warned that excluding Huawei risks delaying the company's 5G rollout. The Chinese vendor currently has the largest market share of the telecommunications equipment market at 28 percent, ahead of Nokia, Ericsson, and Cisco, according to research firm Dell'Oro Group.

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