The WiFi Alliance, which is a consortium consisting mainly of American technology companies, announced that it is suspending Huawei’s membership. This means that the company will not be able to influence decisions regarding future wireless technology standards.
The WiFi Alliance is a group of companies that test and equip their devices to operate in accordance with a single wireless standard. This ensures the interoperability of these networks and the absence of compatibility problems on different devices. The alliance has more than 500 members, and technology giants, including Apple, Qualcomm, Intel and Broadcom are key members.
Now, the Alliance has temporarily restricted Huawei’s membership to comply with the Ministry of Commerce’s regulations against the company. The Trump administration has called Huawei a threat to national security and believes that smartphones and network equipment companies can seriously harm the United States.
According to the Alliance: “The Wi-Fi Alliance fully complies with the recent decision of the US Department of Commerce, without revoking the membership of Huawei Technologies. The Wi-Fi Alliance temporarily limits Huawei Technologies’ participation in the Wi-Fi Alliance actions subject to the decree.”
This means that as long as Huawei can use WiFi standards. Nevertheless, it is likely that the pressure exerted by the government on Huawei is simply to give the United States a trump card in its relations with China. China has the same loose change (Apple), but any eastern response to the technology giant from Cupertino will lead to mutual losses and problems.
Huawei received a temporary permit to conduct business with US companies. The permit expires on August 19th. However, given the huge amount of Huawei network equipment that American companies and consumers rely on, further escalation from the US will be equally painful for all parties.
