Dixons Carphone has confirmed it will not stock Huawei’s 5G handsets following the decision of EE and Vodafone to suspend all pre-orders.
The Huawei Mate X was expected to be one of the first 5G smartphones to be available in the UK, forming part of both EE and Vodafone’s launch line-up.
However last week, the US Commerce Department prohibited American firms from doing business with Huawei, a move which means the company’s handsets will no longer receive updates for the Android operating system from Google or access to its popular applications.
- EE begins phase one of 5G rollout
- Huawei Android restrictions temporarily eased
- What does Huawei US ban mean for you?
Huawei Dixons Carphone
As a result, EE has, dropped the Mate X – at least temporarily - while Vodafone appears to have followed suit.
BT Consumer CEO Marc Allera confirmed the decision at EE’s 5G launch event in London, explaining that customers needed the assurance that they would receive the support they were entitled to over the lifetime of a two-year contract.
And now Huawei 5G devices will be absent from the shelves of the UK’s largest mobile retailer.
“Following the news that some of our network partners have paused the sale of Huawei 5G phones, we’re not currently able to include Huawei devices as part of the line-up for our 5G pre-order,” a Dixons Carphone spokesperson told TechRadar Pro. “We will keep customers informed when we get any further updates.”
At the time of writing, both EE and Carphone Warehouse had other Huawei devices available to order.
EE 5G will go live in six UK cities on May 30, with Vodafone’s network launching on July 3. O2 and Three also plan to go live in 2019.
- Here are the best mobile phone deals for May 2019
