The aftermath of the US trade ban against Huawei has taken its toll on the Chinese tech giants as they’re now scrambled to look for alternatives and building their own services to counter the lack of Google Mobile Services. The absence of the Google Play Store, Gmail, Google Maps, and a bunch of the suite programmes are missing.

But now, according to Reuters, Huawei have signed a deal with TomTom, which is meant to be a Google Maps alternative. The deal was apparently signed “some time ago”, according to a TomTom spokesperson.

The agreement entails that Huawei can now use TomTom’s mapping, traffic and navigation software instead of Google Maps tech. This means that Huawei can use TomTom’s software to create their own smartphone apps, which clearly, needs to be done. And this shows that Huawei could be coming with their own ‘Huawei Maps’ rather than a TomTom GPS app on Huawei devices.

TomTom has been a veteran in the digital maps industry, and have the experience that Huawei needs to develop their own ecosystem, especially the Maps part of that equation. Not much other details regarding the deal, and don’t be surprised if you don’t get much else. Just know that this is an indication into Huawei’s thinking, and living in a Google free world.