ZTE says US ban will ‘severely impact’ its survival and partnerships

Last week, ZTE was hit hard as the US government banned the company. Under the ban, the China-based smartphone maker can't get hold of Qualcomm chips and it stands to lose its license to use Android. Now ZTE has spoken out on the subject, saying that the ban will “severely impact” its survival going forward.

The US Department of Commerce banned US exports to the company after it found that ZTE violated an agreement. The company is said to have been illegally exporting US technology to North Korea and Iran, once caught, the company failed to discipline the staff members associated with the exports.

As quoted by The Verge, ZTE has since spoken about the ban, stating that it invested “tremendous resources in export compliance”, adding that the ban will “not only severely impact the survival and development of ZTE, but will also cause damages to partners”. That last part is significant, as ZTE is a customer of several US-based companies, including Qualcomm.

In response to the situation ZTE has reportedly assembled a ‘crisis team' in order to figure out the next step. It's not just the US giving ZTE trouble though, as the UK government also labelled the company as a national security concern last week.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to see where this goes, but for the time being, it looks like ZTE will need to source its chips elsewhere and potentially turn to another operating system. There is a huge smartphone market in Asia that ZTE can tap into, but if it loses access to Android, then it will be at a disadvantage. 

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