Newsletter
Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest provider of wireless infrastructure and the third largest smartphone OEM, is now facing government-related scrutiny in Australia, Canada, and South Korea according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. According to the news, the Australian government is taking a two-pronged approach: pressuring the Solomon Islands to abandon plans for a Huawei-created undersea cable connecting the two nations, as well as expressing concern to other nations about Huawei’s upcoming 5G-related wireless equipment. Regarding the cable, Australia has offered to self-fund the construction of an alternative. Meanwhile, earlier this week in Canada a debate was held in Parliament regarding the Shenzhen-based corporation. And finally, over in South Korea, the CEO of SK Telecom – the nation’s largest carrier – is reported to have said Huawei is a “concern” regarding the prospect of soliciting vendors for next-generation wireless technology.
The United States government has, for a number of years now, been skeptical of Huawei and fears it’s spying for Beijing, though the corporation denies any and all assertions, instead pointing out a “robust system of cybersecurity assurance and a proven track record” according to a representative. Huawei recently suffered a major blow to its US-smartphone success strategy when the government successfully pressured AT&T – as well as potentially other carriers – to scrap plans to sell the high-end Huawei Mate 10 Pro. The device is still available to American customers unlocked, however. Today’s news suggests that the US may be successfully convincing other nations to rally against China’s top OEM, and this may be only the start.
Indeed with the latest Facebook privacy-related scandal involving the data of 150 million users, it is likely that the global IT industry as a whole, be it on the social media side or, in this case, the infrastructure one, is going to be facing even greater scrutiny and calls for transparency going forward. And unfortunately for Huawei, if it wants to play ball in foreign stadiums, it will either need to make larger-scale lobbying efforts or else relent and be forced to comply with whatever measures are deemed necessary to verify the “integrity” of its IT hardware.