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United States China Security The Internet Technology

Huawei Had a Deal To Give Washington Redskins Fans Free Wi-Fi, Until the Government Stepped In (wsj.com) 113

Posted by msmash from the that's-a-goal dept.
Two years after a congressional report labeled Huawei a national-security threat, the Chinese firm unexpectedly scored a big-name ally in Washington. It was the Redskins, the capital's National Football League franchise. Huawei reached an agreement in 2014 to beam Wi-Fi through the suites at the team's FedEx Field, in exchange for advertising in the stadium and during broadcasts. From a report: It was a marketing coup for a company hankering to beef up its meager U.S. business and boost its image inside the Beltway. But the deal didn't last long. A government adviser read about the partnership. He knew the FedEx Field suites were a frequent haunt for lawmakers and senior officials across many agencies. So he triggered an unofficial federal complaint to the Redskins, who quietly tore up the deal. That previously unreported backroom maneuver is an example of a yearslong effort by U.S. officials, often working outside formal channels, to blacklist the Chinese technology giant. Washington has since intensified the campaign and taken it mainstream, with Congress and federal agencies working this year to snuff out Huawei's small U.S. business and curtail its much bigger overseas ambition. Further reading: Huawei Exceeds 200 Million Smartphone Shipments, Setting Company Record.
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Huawei Had a Deal To Give Washington Redskins Fans Free Wi-Fi, Until the Government Stepped In More

Huawei Had a Deal To Give Washington Redskins Fans Free Wi-Fi, Until the Government Stepped In

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  • Huawei's Honor used to be my go-to budget smartphone brand for some time. Well, to my surprise the Honor 7x, the phone introduced early in 2018, never hit the shelves at our local Best Buy, and then they just dropped all of Huawei's products. This is pretty annoying because I prefer Huawei/Honor to Lenovo, Samsung or LG.

    • They aren't backdoored by the NSA. That's why there's such a negative reaction by the federal government. They don't feel safe if we have secrets from them.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        So, are you against NSA spying on our adversaries? We're all well aware that that's their job, and that virtually every country on the planet does so, or it wouldn't likely continue to be a country. So, if we've discovered how one of our adversaries is doing so, and try to put a stop to it, how is that an issue for you?

        • I have more to fear from the NSA than any foreign government. The NSA isn't spying on our adversaries. They're spying on us. After lying and saying they didn't. Wikileaks confirms.

  • Define "free" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Monday December 24, 2018 @12:41PM (#57853830)
    Knowing what the Redskins owner, Dan Snyder, and his efforts to extract every penny from fans, I doubt that there no strings attached to Wifi access. The Dan Snyder I know would have gotten Huawei to supply the Wifi for no cost to him and then charged fans for access. I can only assume that Snyder worked out a deal where he would profit on the access like selling the right to datamine/track each fan. That's the only way it would have been "free" for fans.

  • All this hating and blacklisting, but I have yet to see any evidence which would make me support this government interference.

  • Seems reasonable. (Score:3)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Monday December 24, 2018 @02:26PM (#57854308)

    With national security at stake, it seem like this was a reasonable to distrust a Chinese state run corporation (Huawei) from directly connecting to government devices. If it were a random company from an ally nation then it might be overkill but we're talking about China which has a ongoing effort to hack US interests.

    You would have to be ignorant of history of just plain gullible to think nothing is wrong with this situation.

    • What evidence? Germany asked to see it before implementing a ban like the US asked for and the US didn't present any evidence. It's just like when Canada asked to see the evidence of WMDs in Iraq. The US is making up stories so that they can put in American hardware everywhere with it's backdoors to the US. Plus the US wants 5G networks on American hardware in as many countries as it can get.

      If you can't compete, cheat. Just like all the tariffs recently on "national security" grounds.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        Right, so you're now claiming that prior to the tariffs, we were on a level playing field? Not even close.

  • it says that the feds are trying to block them everywhere. That is not true. just trying to block them in nations which we consider allies and they have access to sensitive data. If these are nations that we are not really allies with and do not share any sensitive/classified data with, we do not care.

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