The battle over 5G smartphones has intensified in China, with the first batch of eight 5G phone models having obtained the quality certificate needed to hit the market. Huawei’s four 5G models, including Mate 20X 5G and Mate X 5G, have obtained China Compulsory Certification, according to the website of the China Quality Certification Center. Oppo, Vivo, ZTE and One Plus also each have one 5G model that secured the certificate. Xiaomi, Samsung and Lenovo failed to make their way into the first batch. Xiaomi said that it will apply to conduct quality tests this week in accordance with its product launch schedule.

Smartphones in China need to acquire three licenses before they are allowed to be sold to the public. The licenses include China Compulsory Certification, a license to allow smartphones to get connected to the 5G network, and the Radio Type Approval Certification. Oppo said that its Oppo Reno 5G model has already secured all three licenses and the phone will be available in the China market in the third quarter of this year. Oppo’s Reno 5G has already been available in Switzerland since May. Huawei announced in June that its Mate 20X 5G had obtained the country’s first license to allow terminal telecommunication equipment to enter the 5G network in China. The company is scheduled to release the phone in the domestic market on July 26. Qin Fei, General Manager of Vivo’s telecom research institute, said the company’s 5G smartphone will hit the streets in August and the testing speed of its model has reached one gigabit per second.

Xiang Ligang, Director General of the Information Consumption Alliance, said this year will only see a very small number of 5G smartphones sold, but companies are all trying to have the first-mover advantage to appeal to consumers. According to a report by market research company Counterpoint, global 5G smartphone shipments are expected to reach 108.2 million units in 2021, up an estimated 255% year-on-year.

Huawei is still struggling to be allowed to participate in the building of 5G networks in Europe. A British parliamentary committee has told the government there are “no technical grounds” for banning the use of its equipment in Britain’s 5G network. Member of Parliament Norman Lamb said a ban on Huawei’s 5G equipment “would not constitute a proportionate response to the potential security threat posed by foreign suppliers”. He added that “banning Huawei would also reduce market competition, giving network operators less leverage on equipment vendors to demand high security standards.” But U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has warned that a failure to restrict Huawei could jeopardize the UK’s chances of cutting a favorable trade deal after Britain leaves the European Union, the China Daily reports. The UK government plans to publish a telecom supply chain review by August, clarifying whether Huawei’s equipment is to be allowed. As things stand, all four major UK operators plan to limit Huawei’s involvement to “non-core” infrastructure, such as radio access networks.

Huawei said 28 of 50 commercial contracts for 5G that it signed globally are with operators in Europe. Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson had secured 43 contracts and 22 contracts as of the end June, respectively. Huawei’s Chinese rival, ZTE, has publicly announced 25 commercial deals. Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei predicted a 30% gain in global handset shipments of 270 million in 2019 despite being on the U.S. trade blacklist. Huawei’s China smartphone market share increased to 46.1% in the second quarter, according to Kantar Worlpanel ComTech.

According to a Washington Post report, Huawei is now also suspected of violating U.S. export controls to furnish equipment to North Korea to build the country’s wireless network. Separately, Agence France-Presse reported that an investigation conducted by Czech public radio found that the Czech unit of Huawei “secretly collected personal data of customers, officials and business partners”. In response to the dual reports, Huawei denied having violated any rules imposed by the EU or the United Nations.