Trump's actions against Huawei limit its 5G tech in US, but Huawei continues to build or improve ~100 undersea cables; ~380 cables carry most international data
President Trump's executive order and the Commerce Department's “Entity List” create new challenges for Huawei's 5G wireless technology …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Entity List action is the sharp end of a campaign that began with Huawei's years-long push into US carrier networks despite Washington's spy-threat warnings — and it lands hardest at home: roughly a quarter of rural US broadband carriers run Huawei gear and warn the ban stalls their high-speed rollout.
The undersea cable detail reframes the story: while the order and the yearly extensions of the telecom equipment ban wall off US 5G, Huawei's ~100-cable buildout keeps it embedded in the ~380-cable physical layer that carries most international data — a market the restrictions don't touch.
First-order effects
- Huawei is cut off from US 5G wireless sales, and the ~25% of rural US broadband carriers using its equipment face replacement costs and delayed rural high-speed deployments.
- Huawei's ~100-cable undersea business continues operating largely outside the order's reach, keeping the company a core supplier of the physical layer of global data transit.
Second-order effects
- Blocking Huawei from US 5G opens the $35B/year cellular equipment market to new entrants, advancing Washington's goal of countering Chinese 5G dominance.
- Huawei's pivot to cables and other businesses — later sustained by billions in Beijing support per the 2024 profile — shows the restrictions pushing its growth toward markets where US leverage is weaker.
Third-order effects
- The campaign establishes a template of targeting chokepoint infrastructure — first radio networks, with cables as the next contested layer — where control of physical assets, not just market access, becomes the lever.
- If the pattern holds, telecom supply chains bifurcate into US-aligned and China-aligned stacks, with Huawei's Beijing-backed supply chain buildout making it the anchor of the non-US alternative.
The trend: Telecom infrastructure is becoming a geopolitical battleground where export controls shape which vendors build both wireless networks and the undersea cables beneath them.