Huawei may be the world’s second largest provider of infrastructure equipment, but the fact that they’re a Chinese company has done them more harm than good when it comes to the interests of national security in the United States and India. Both of those countries have banned operators from using Huawei gear, and now it looks like a third nation is set to outlaw their hardware: Taiwan. According to the Taipei Times, the National Communications Commission (NCC) of Taiwan has decreed that telecommunications operators can no longer use technology supplied by Huawei. The operators that will be impacted by this decision include Asia-Pacific Telecom, Vibo, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone Telecommunications, all of which have already purchased equipment from Huawei, but now have said gear sitting at customs collecting dust. NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang is suggesting that the Ministry of Economic Affairs make a list of specific equipment to be banned to ease any confusion, and that operators should have no problem finding compatible equipment from competitors.
Considering that Huawei recently signed a massive deal in the UK with Everything Everywhere, we’ve got to wonder why some countries have issues trusting them? Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks must be all smiles right now, but winning share due to fear, rather than providing superior or lower cost hardware shouldn’t be the way the world works. Whatever happened to the capitalist system? Anyway, we’re sure that the delays due to this decision will be minimal and that in the long run these silly bans will eventually be lifted.
Operators who use Huawei gear typically elect to go with them because they’re the cheapest. Some say they can provide the prices they do because they reverse engineer equipment from Nokia Siemens Networks, but such claims have yet to be proven and are just stories that get passed around the bars in Espoo, Finland where NSN is headquartered.