Huawei May Be Talking To AT&T About Smartphone Distribution

Huawei is one of the largest and fastest-growing smartphone manufacturers in the world but it doesn’t really have a significant presence in the United States as its smartphones aren’t normally carried by the country’s four major carriers. One of the ways to try and capture the U.S. market is obviously to get your smartphones on at least a few if not all of these major carriers. Huawei may be working on that now as a new report claims that it’s talking to AT&T about U.S. smartphone distribution.

According to the report, Huawei is talking to AT&T about gettings it HiSilicon Kirin chipsets accredited by the carrier in the United States. The two companies are said to have discussed the possibilities of selling a Huawei smartphone powered by its HiSilicon processor in the country.

Accreditation would be the first step to securing a distribution deal so it’s crucial for Huawei to achieve this if it wants to properly compete in the country’s smartphone market.

Huawei’s U.S. ambitions were thwarted by a congressional report back in 2012 which highlighted concerns about the company’s connection to the Chinese government. It was suggested that Huawei smartphones could be used to spy on Americans but the company has repeatedly denied those claims. Nevertheless, it has never been able to get its handsets on any of the major carriers.

It’s unclear right now how long this process will take and it obviously can’t be said for sure if Huawei is going to get accreditation for its chipsets at all.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: AT&T, Huawei