Banning Huawei in India Will Delay 5G Roll-Out by 3 Years: Ritchie Peng

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  • Huawei has secured more than 50 commercial 5G contracts around the world
  • The smartphone maker has accused the US government of launching cyber-attacks to infiltrate its networks

China’s Huawei Technologies, which was put on a US trade blacklist this year, believes that banning the company in India will delay the roll-out of 5G services in the country by two to three years.

The US has been pushing its allies to keep Huawei out of 5G telecom networks over suspicion that the Chinese government used the company for spying.  Huawei has repeatedly rejected this, saying that it is independent from the Chinese government.

“European operators have said (in interviews to media) that without Huawei’s 5G technology, the 5G roll-out will be postponed by two to three years. We hold the same expectation for the India market,” said Ritchie Peng, chief marketing officer, wireless network product line, Huawei, at the company’s Asia-Pacific Innovation Day on Tuesday.

“Around the world, Huawei has already secured more than 50 commercial 5G contracts, which shows that these customers from around the world believe that Huawei’s 5G is secure,” Peng added.

Out of these 50 contracts, 28 are in Europe, 11 in the Middle East, six in Asia-Pacific, four in South America and one in Africa.

India, the world’s second largest mobile services market, plans to auction 5G airwaves this year. However, the government is yet to decide on allowing Huawei in the 5G trials and roll-outs.

Huawei accuses US of threatening its staff

Meanwhile, the Chinese tech giant has accused the US government of launching cyber-attacks to infiltrate its networks and threatening its employees. However, it did not offer any evidence for the allegations.

In a press release on Tuesday, Huawei alleged that the US had been unlawfully detaining its staff and launching cyber-attacks to infiltrate its internal information systems.

Huawei said in its public statement that some of its employees were visited by FBI agents at their homes and pressured to collect information on the company.

Since the start of this year, at least three U.S. employees have been contacted by U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Huawei document said.

However, there has been no response yet from US officials.

In May this year, Washington put Huawei on an Entity List, cutting off its access to essential US components and technology.

 

Inputs: livemint, BBC