US Investigating Huawei for Sanctions Violations – Report

Huawei is, once again, the subject of some unwanted US government attention.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, said the Justice Dept. "is investigating whether Huawei Technologies Co. violated US sanctions related to Iran."

There aren't many details beyond that at this point, but we do know this will make it tougher for Huawei to operate, at any scale, in the US.

"Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations where it operates, including the applicable export control and sanction laws and regulations of UN, US and EU," the company replied, in an email to Light Reading.

In just a few months, Huawei's had US carriers reject its products and lawmakers attempting to push through bans on all US government agencies from buying its products and services. Congress did pass a bill keeping Defense Dept. dollars from Huawei and others; that was signed into law late last year.

The FCC, meanwhile, aims to prevent companies like Huawei and ZTE -- and maybe Russian vendors, too -- from enjoying any carrier spending done via the $8.5 billion a year Universal Service Fund (USF). The agency does not name any vendors or countries in its document seeking outside comment, but they've not kept it a secret who they're targeting. (See FCC Eyes USF Funds Ban for Chinese Vendors .)

In FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's remarks related to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, he notes that the government is seeking to disallow any "equipment [that] can allow hostile foreign powers to inject viruses and other malware, steal Americans' private data, spy on US businesses, and more" from being purchased via the USF. (See FCC Proposes USF Ban on Vendors Deemed a Security Threat .)

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— Phil Harvey, US News Editor, Light Reading