Huawei Technologies has been excluded from a US programme to deploy a nationwide emergency network, with the country’s Department of Commerce telling Bloomberg that the decision was made “due to…national safety concerns.”

The US Government is supporting the construction of 700MHz LTE networks across the country which can be used by the emergency services and other public bodies, under the auspices of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration – the latter of which is part of the DoC.

While no other statements have been made by the regulators, the publication reports that William Plummer, a US spokesman for Huawei, had said that “notwithstanding that it is an ill-founded, ungrounded determination, it could have a chilling effect on our greater US business activities and accountability needs to be defined appropriately.”

Huawei has previously had numerous struggles in the US market, with reports stating that it had been excluded from Sprint’s Network Vision project due to concerns over security. It has also had several acquisitions in the country blocked, including deals to buy 2Wire and 3Leaf – it was also reported to have looked at Motorola’s infrastructure business, which was subsequently sold to Nokia Siemens Networks.

The company even went as far as publishing an “open letter” earlier this year, in a move to address concerns which have hampered its progress in the US market. Huawei opened itself up to an investigation by the authorities, arguing that “no one has ever offered any evidence” of alleged links with the Chinese military.

Plummer also told Bloomberg that “playing Huawei as a pawn in some geopolitical game of chess is doing nothing more than threatening US jobs, investment, competition and innovation.”

In September 2011, NIST began seeking advice on the possible key features of the new emergency services network, with a deadline for submissions of the end of today.