The US government permitted Qualcomm to continue selling components to under fire vendor Huawei, but only parts to equip 4G smartphones despite customers transitioning to 5G devices.
The chip manufacturer said in a statement to Reuters, “We received a license for a number of products, which includes some 4G products”, this comes after all US semiconductor firms were banned from selling to companies deemed a threat to national security.
A Qualcomm spokesperson told the news agency, the company has other license applications pending with the US government. Specific Huawei 4G products Qualcomm is now able to equip were not confirmed.
Huawei tends to use Qualcomm chipsets for its mid to low range of smartphones, it also equips its internally designed Kirin series for, particularly on premium ranges such as the Huawei Mate and P series.
The US government is currently under an international campaign to urging allied nations to not use Huawei equipment, in future 5G network rollouts, claiming the company provides a backdoor into national infrastructure to enable espionage for the Chinese government. An accusation Huawei has long denied.
