Huawei ban list and timeline: Google, Microsoft, Android fallout
Today we're going to run down the effective Huawei ban list, the basics in China-based spy fears, and the fallout. This has a little to do with ZTE, a lot to do with China's government, and what might be the worst bout of luck a company ever had (with regard to their native country's timing for a trade war with the United States). But most importantly, we're going to list all the places Huawei's been banned, rejected, or removed in the recent past. SEE: Updates at the end of this text.
Back in January of 2006, a Newsweek report suggested India's Intelligence Bureau suspected Huawei "had ties" to China's intelligence apparatus and military. British government officials had similar concerns during the proposed 2005 Huawei bid for ownership of the electronics and information technology firm.
In 2011, Verizon and AT&T had to send the US Commerce Department information about potential China-based spyware. In 2012, the bans began. Have a peek at Huawei and ZTE could "undermine US national security" say lawmakers from October of 2012. A large part of this had to do with embargoed equipment sales in Iran and Huawei's apparent bypassing of that embargo.
Huawei / US Government / Market Timeline:
• Huawei faced a ban in Canada in 10/12 (October, 2012)
• US government purchase of China-made tech banned in 03/13
• Huawei said they'd "exit the US market" in 12/13
• US bill sought federal ban on working with ZTE and Huawei in 01/18
• AT&T backed out of a Huawei deal in 01/18 (link below)
• Verizon dropped Huawei phones in 01/18
• Best Buy pulled Huawei phones from store shelves in USA in 03/18
• Huawei, ZTE banned from military base retail stores in 05/18
• In Australia, Huawei banned from use of NBN 5G network 06/18
• Huawei phones banned from use with video app VLC in 07/18
• DNC warns Democrats in US government to avoid Huawei and ZTE 08/18
• ZTE, Huawei banned completely from US government use in 08/18
• Huawei phones banned from 3DMark benchmarking software for cheating, 09/18
• All major US carriers drop Huawei, US gov pressures parent companies in 12/18
• Huawei banned from government contracts (and use by government officials) in 12/18
• The US DOJ hit Huawei with charges of fraud, sanctions violations, etc, in 01/19
• Google banned Huawei from key Android apps and updates on May 19th, 2019
• Qualcomm, Intel, Xilinx, Broadcom cut off Huawei hardware on May 19th, 2019
• Microsoft removes Huawei laptop from store shelves, May 21st, 2019
In October of 2013, Huawei suggested that it'd take one decade to convince the USA that they were safe to use. When this article is set to go live, it's been a few months shy of six years since Huawei made that prediction. In July of 2015, Google teamed up with Huawei to make the Nexus 6P – since then, things have been decent between the companies (until this month).
It January of 2018 that Huawei was supposed to bring a major smartphone to a US-based carrier. At the last minute, government pressure seemed to be too much for AT&T and AT&T backed out of the deal. As that deal break-up was made public, the Huawei CEO went off-script at CES 2018 about the USA's attitude toward his company. He did that again in March of 2018.
The investigation on Iran trade did no favors for Huawei in April of 2018. At this point it was apparent Huawei was developing its own OS as replacement for Android – perhaps in anticipation of Google's eventual souring of relations in the USA.
There was a publicly-readable collaboration allegation that Huawei and the Chinese government's intelligence community collaborated at some point before April of 2019. That allegation came from the CIA on April 21st, 2019.
UPDATE: Now that Google's effectively banned Huawei from a future with Android, things must look bleak at Huawei headquarters. After the initial ban, Google revealed a 90 day extension. That ban also apparently did not include Google Play and security from Google Play Protect – and both will continue to function, for now. Stay tuned as this timeline extends.UPDATE 2, May 30, 2019: While Huawei was temporarily removed from the roster at the Wi-fi, Bluetooth, and SD card alliances, they've been reinstated once again.