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How a US ban on Huawei could affect consumers

Chinese phone maker and telecom equipment giant probed for allegedly violating Iran sanctions

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A Huawei ad in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 5, 2018. (Picture: Reuters)
This article originally appeared on ABACUS
Huawei is facing a criminal investigation over possible violations of US sanctions against Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Details of what exactly Huawei is accused of are still unclear, and the company told the South China Morning Post in a statement that it complies with all applicable laws and regulations everywhere it operates. But the stakes are high, because we’ve already seen one Chinese smartphone giant get punished by US authorities.
A Huawei ad in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 5, 2018. (Picture: Reuters)
A Huawei ad in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 5, 2018. (Picture: Reuters)
Just last week, the US government banned American companies from selling their hardware and software to ZTE for seven years. That’s after the Chinese smartphone maker was accused of failing to punish employees responsible for illegal sales to Iran.

The ban means ZTE won’t be able to use Snapdragon CPUs from Qualcomm, and could mean it can’t use Google’s version of Android -- which would mean no Gmail, no Google Maps, and no Google Play app store.

If a similar ban were to hit Huawei, it could potentially have a huge impact because it has leaned heavily on software from US companies.

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