The Trump administration has issued a temporary reprieve that will allow Huawei to continue doing business with US companies for the next 90 days.
The Commerce Department on Monday filed a temporary general license for Huawei that allows US suppliers "to provide service and support, including software updates or patches, to existing Huawei handsets that were available to the public on or before May 16" through Aug. 19.
The same general license also lets Huawei work with US mobile carriers to maintain existing telecommunication networks inside the the country. However, no carve-out was made for any new smartphones or networks Huawei is preparing to roll out in the US.
"The Temporary General License grants operators time to make other arrangements and the Department space to determine the appropriate long term measures for Americans and foreign telecommunications providers that currently rely on Huawei equipment for critical services," said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a statement. "In short, this license will allow operations to continue for existing Huawei mobile phone users and rural broadband networks."
The action will likely contain any unintended consequences of Huawei's blacklisting from US suppliers, at least in the short term. The Commerce Dept. can also choose to extend the 90-day temporary license if neccessary.
Monday's move comes after the US government placed Huawei on a blacklist that restricted it from trading with US companies without prior government approval. As a result, chipmakers including Intel, Broadcom, and Qualcomm, and software giant Google, restricted Huawei's access to their technology.
In response to the blacklisting, Huawei told PCMag: "We will continue to sell existing inventory through our current retail partners, but can't share anything about future plans at this time." Reportedly, the company has prepared its own mobile operating system on standby in the event it ever loses access to Android or Windows.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated with further comment from the US Commerce Department.