China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is working with the Dutch mapping company TomTom N.V. to put maps and location services on its smartphones, Reuters reported Friday.

Huawei has been banned from using parts of Google LLC’s Android operating system on its most recent phones after being placed on an “Entity list” by the U.S. Department of Commerce last year. The ban on doing business with Huawei was imposed in May following suspicions that the firm has close ties with the Chinese government and therefore represents a threat to U.S. national security.

As a result, Huawei’s latest phones can’t use key apps and services such as the Google Play Store, YouTube or Google Maps.

That has forced the Chinese company to try to come up with its own apps and services to replace those provided by Google, and to do so it’s reaching out to companies and developers from outside the U.S.

The partnership with TomTom comes after Huawei launched a campaign in London last week to encourage developers to build apps for Huawei Mobile Services, which is an alternative to Google Mobile Services, and is offering financial incentives for them to do so. Huawei also announced a similar initiative in India late last year.

TomTom’s mapping technology is already available through dedicated apps on both Android and iOS. The company says its software can process up to 2 million map changes per hour in 164 countries.

The company’s software is mostly used by vehicle manufacturers, including companies such as Subaru Corp., Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. and Hitachi Ltd., and also provides information such as economical route-planning, speed limits, speed camera locations and the likelihood of roadblocks, none of which are available globally through Google Maps.

“This is a big opportunity for TomTom to get back into the smartphone business, which was a battle the vendor had lost,” said Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller. “It’s a good example of how regulation can tip the scale on markets, and also an example of how consumers may suffer with an offering that’s not up to par. Now it’s up to TomTom to grab the opportunity and convince Huawei smartphone users they can compete with Google Maps.”

Photo: TomTom/Facebook