WASHINGTON, May 29 (WNM staff) - Google's decision to withhold its Android software from Huawei is being seen as the beginning of a technology cold war that could compel African countries - in the future - to choose between US and Chinese technology, analysts have told the BBC.

Most Africans connecting to the internet today are likely to be using a Chinese smartphone, powered by a Chinese-built network, and at least half of the time, it was built by Chinese tech giant, Huawei.

"Huawei built huge swathes of Africa's current IT infrastructure and if the US is successful in crippling the company, the aftershocks could be very painful for Africa's burgeoning tech sector that now relies on a company in Washington's crosshairs," Eric Olander, from the South Africa-based China Africa project, says.

While the recent concern about Huawei has been focused on communications networks in the West, there are also allegations of a previous security breach in Africa.

Critics of Huawei operations point to a report in January 2018 in French newspaper Le Monde that found that the computer system at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, which was installed by Huawei, had allegedly been compromised. The allegations were denied by the African Union and Chinese officials.

Huawei's consumer business CEO, Richard Yu, recently told CNBC that the company still preferred using Google's and Microsoft's software, but that it would start using its "plan B" operating systems if regulators left it with "no other choice." That sounds like a dire warning, but a closer look at the numbers indicates that the two tech giants can afford to lose Huawei's business.