Huawei is one of the largest tech companies in the world, offering strong products and excellent support. But allegations of spying for the Chinese government keep it from making its way into the United States as Verizon has added its name to wireless providers that will not offer Huawei devices.
Earlier this month, AT&T backed out of a proposed deal to carry the Mate 10 Pro and offer it to prospective customers after pressure from lawmakers and the federal government. Verizon has now also backed out of similar plans, according to a report from Bloomberg. Despite the lack of carriers, Huawei has said that it will still offer the Mate 10 Pro via retail sites such as Best Buy, Microsoft, and Amazon, starting on February 18. But the reach will be far less than it could normally get through carriers.
In addition, the rush to 5G wireless technology between AT&T and Verizon had involved Huawei, as the Chinese company was working hard to not only get its handsets compatible with the new tech, but also help create a worldwide infrastructure to handle it. Again, U.S. lawmakers forced AT&T to back out of those plans as well.
The thought of Huawei spying for the Chinese government has been a topic of discussion since 2012 when a House subcommittee labeled it and China Mobile national security threats. Giving the company access to U.S. phones obviously does not sit well with the government.
“Your phone is the ultimate Trojan horse,” said Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics LLC, told Bloomberg. “If someone has control of your phone, they can do a lot with it. In a nightmare scenario, they can turn on the microphone or the camera and, -- if you working for a defense contractor or chipmaker -- they can obtain sensitive info.”
For its part, Huawei continues to deny the allegations, CEO Richard Yu said at CES during his keynote that the company has the trust of global carriers and the 70 million people it serves around the world.