Huawei receiving a trade ban from the United States over concerns about spying was perhaps the most important tech story of 2019, but it hasn't fully panned out yet. The U.S. Commerce Department gave companies like Qualcomm a temporary license to continue selling components to Huawei, which was extended again in May, and in August, and in November. Now the company is receiving another reprieve.

The Department of Commerce announced on Tuesday that it has extended the Temporary General License for Huawei again, with the expiry date now set for May 15th. The department is also seeking public comments for "the continuing need for, and scope of, possible future extensions of the Temporary General License (TGL) for Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and its non-United States affiliates (Huawei) on the Entity List."

The new extension is primarily intended to give internet service providers more time to transition away from Huawei-made networking equipment. Last month, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that provided $1 billion to rural telecom companies to replace Huawei hardware with products from other companies.

Source: Department of Commerce