Huawei has reportedly signed a deal with Dutch digital mapping company TomTom to develop maps for its phones, reports Reuters. A TomTom spokesperson told Reuters that the deal closed some time ago, but it became public late last week.
According to the reports of Reuters Huawei is building its own apps with TomTom’s maps, traffic information, and navigation tools.
Previous reports have said Huawei is building a full-fledged mapping system known as Map Kit. That software would be meant for app developers and could use data from Russian tech giant Yandex and Huawei’s own telecom base stations.
The TomTom deal could signal that Huawei is at least temporarily backing off Map Kit, or that it’s simply still working on the tech and needs a short-term solution.
Just like other android phones, Huawei has so far relied on Google Maps. But the Trump administration placed sanctions on the company last year, threatening its ties to American tech companies like Google.
Huawei is using Android for now, but the future of that deal is unclear, and Huawei is building its own operating system called HarmonyOS.
