AT&T® Walks Out of a Deal with Huawei

The telecommunications giant AT&T® recently dropped out from the deal to sell the Huawei Smartphone called the Mate 10 to the people of the United States. Their partnership was about to unveil when they walk out suddenly. Officials, who were familiar with the deal, said that there was much anonymity regarding the deal, as the discussions were private. Interestingly, the Wall Street Journal had already reported about this change of plans by AT&T®.
The reason that made AT&T® to take such a huge step is not yet revealed. However, a group of lawmakers expressed their doubts on an important deal between an unrevealed American telecommunication company and Huawei to the Federal Communications Commission through a letter. They wrote about their concern on the deal to sell their products in the United States because of the ties of Huawei with the Chinese government. Even though the letter did not mention AT&T® specifically, their deal to sell the Huawei products in the United States was evident.
AT&T® spokesperson Fletcher Cook refused to comment on the topic, however, insiders report that the letter was reviewed by the New York Times and they said that, “the Congress had long been concerned about Chinese espionage in general, and Huawei’s role in that espionage in particular.”
Huawei, which is a private company based in Shenzhen, China, has denied to the comment that they present any kind of security risks. In a statement, the officials from Huawei stated that they delivered “premium devices with integrity globally and in the united states market over the past five years.” They further added that they would introduce new products for the American market soon.
Huawei has a long list of setbacks regarding issues of security and this last minute turmoil is the latest among them. Huawei always faced political oppositions to its attempts to snoop on the United States market for years. This turmoil also deepened the political rift over the affairs of user privacy, security, and technology.
The lawmakers criticized the deal heavily, over the chances of Chinese access to the user data of America, regardless of the promises from the Chinese company that they will take necessary steps to make the data more secure.
Even though Huawei sells smartphones in the United States of America, they do not have deals with any of the prominent wireless carriers. The carriers, who dominate the communication market in the country includes T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T®. This makes it more difficult for Huawei to set a base in the United States.