President Trump expected to sign order banning Huawei and ZTE from US networks

Executive order would ban Chinese telecoms equipment from US mobile network infrastructure

President Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week that would ban Huawei and ZTE hardware from US mobile carriers' networks.

The administration is pushing to get the ban in place before MWC in Barcelona, which is taking place in the last week of February. While equipment and device makers will be showing off their latest wares at MWC, there will also be high-level meetings and business conducted at the event.

The Trump administration is planning to reinforce its point by sending secretary of state Mike Pompeo to push the US government line that Huawei and ZTE are not to be trusted.

That's according to anonymous sources cited by Politico, who say that the "long-delayed executive order" is intended to "send a signal that future contracts for cutting-edge technology must prioritise cyber security".

The US government has warned that China's government could co-opt its communications hardware giants into compromising foreign networks, and helping its security services to conduct espionage.

It also claims that Huawei has been involved in industrial espionage, partly to help it catch up with companies like Cisco - Cisco claimed that, among other things, Huawei copied large chunks of its IOS software code, right down to the use interface - and partly at the behest of China's government.

The US government has also been pushing its closest allies to ban Huawei, in particular, from 5G mobile network build-outs.

Governments across the world have always been somewhat more circumspect with regard to ZTE given its closer relationship with China's government, and claims that it has sold telecoms surveillance systems to Iran.

Politico's source suggested that, despite US government sabre-rattling, mobile operators in the US still have "no clear guidance on how to proceed". And with Huawei ruled out of the bidding, the costs of building out 5G mobile networks could be significantly raised.