Government Supposedly Asked Redskins To Cut The Huawei Wi-Fi Deal

The unluckily-named Washington Redskins had a contract ready with Huawei to offer free of cost Wi-Fi at FedFex Field in the suites. But security issues lifted by the federal government supposedly resulted in the team backing out, as per media reports. The now-dead agreement is the newest instance to come to light of the US government’s current distrust of the Chinese tech manufacturer. The firm’s goods were prohibited within government organizations previously this year.

Below the terms of deal, Huawei might have offered free Internet to all of the high-cost indoor suites in the stadium. In return, the team might put up ads for the Chinese tech behemoth all over FedEx Field—no money might have exchanged hands in the agreement. When the team declared the plan through a tweet, it got Michael Wessel’s attention, who sits on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (the congressional panel). He had a word with one more government executive.

On a related note, Huawei earlier claimed that it was looking for clarification from New Zealand after the nation’s intelligence organization refused the telecommunication sector’s first appeal to employ the Chinese company’s tools in its projected 5G mobile network. Huawei claimed that it had not had official contact with the GCSB (Government Communication Security Bureau), which has mentioned national security worries in refusing a contract from Spark New Zealand (telecoms operator) to develop its 5G network using Huawei tools.

“Huawei is looking for an imperative meeting with the relevant officials and ministers to know the government’s viewpoint and get explanation on the procedure from here,” Andrew Bowater, New Zealand deputy managing director at Huawei, to the media in an interview. He claimed that New Zealand had not shown any proof of unlawful activity and Huawei refused the belief that it endangered local businesses in any manner.