August 20, 2019 – NTT Docomo Inc. said today it will resume taking orders for Huawei Technologies Co.’s new smartphone, a day after the United States granted a 90-day trade extension to the blacklisted Chinese company so that it can service existing customers.
Japan’s largest carrier by users had suspended accepting orders for Huawei’s high-end P30 Pro model since late May due to the U.S. blacklisting of the company over national security concerns. NTT Docomo said it will restart taking orders Wednesday for the new model that will go on sale in September.
“We had been examining the impact of the U.S. trade restrictions on Huawei but have confirmed that our customers can safely use Huawei products at this stage,” said an NTT Docomo spokesman.
The carrier had cited the possibility of some applications offered by U.S. technology giant Google LLC being unavailable for use on Huawei handsets.
NTT Docomo’s major rivals — KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp. — already rolled out Huawei’s P30 lite smartphones on Aug. 8 after putting off sales initially planned for May.
They said they were able to confirm the continued use of Google services, including its Android operating system, on the Huawei handsets.
E-commerce giant Rakuten Inc.’s mobile unit also started selling Huawei P30 lite models on Aug. 5 after postponing their launch in May.
The Chinese mobile phone manufacturer had the fifth-largest smartphone shipment volume in Japan, accounting for 6.2 percent of the total in the year ended March, after Apple Inc., Sharp Corp., Sony Mobile Communications Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration views Huawei — a leader in next-generation 5G wireless networks — as a national security threat, suspecting its equipment could be used for cyberespionage. Huawei denies the allegations.