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EuroWire – January 2011
31
Telecom
With the help of some persuasive
Americans, China’s Huawei makes
a determined push into the US marketplace
Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is the world’s second-largest
telecom equipment supplier, behind Sweden’s Ericsson. With
Chinese government backing, Huawei has signed up major
customers in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Even in Europe it
has competed well with Ericsson to supply equipment to big
carriers. But Huawei has struggled to break into the US market,
largely because of worries about national security on the part
of a number of members of Congress. Determined to overcome
the legislators’ reservations, Huawei has assembled an array of
lobbyists, lawyers, consultants and public relations firms with
the goal of helping it to win US customers. To that end, it also
has formed a “cooperative relationship” with Amerilink Telecom,
a distributor of Huawei products whose board members
include a former US congressman and a former president of the
World Bank. Amerilink’s CEO is a former senior vice president of
Sprint Nextel Corp, the third-largest American wireless carrier.
Both Sprint and Amerilink have their headquarters in Overland
Park, Kansas.
The concentrated effort by Huawei is already bearing fruit. The
Internet communications firm Clearwire (Kirkland, Washington)
–
an operator of fourth-generation mobile broadband networks
in some 30 US cities – was to begin testing a system based on
Huawei’s 4G network technology before the New Year. And the
Chinese company is believed to be under consideration for a
contract to supply $3 billion in advanced wireless equipment
to Sprint, which bought its last round of network equipment
from Canada’s Nortel Networks; Motorola, of the US; and Alcatel
Lucent, of France. As noted by John Markoff and David Barboza
of the
International Herald Tribune
(25
th
October), Huawei’s
American initiative is significant because the Shenzhen-based
firm is China’s “first truly home-grown”multinational corporation.
Accordingly, the
Tribune
reporters wrote, “Some analysts say they
believe [Huawei’s] spectacular rise will serve as a model for other
Chinese companies seeking to compete internationally.”
Huawei’s public-relations initiative may have taken a blow
❈
❈
when Clearwire, the Chinese company’s American choice
to test its latest technology, ran into some money troubles
with implications for its 54%-owner Sprint Nextel. On
15
th
November, Clearwire was reported as saying it might
need help to remain in operation, possibly obliging Sprint
to provide additional financing if Clearwire were to default
on debt.
Dow Jones Newswires
noted that Sprint had hoped
Clearwire would give it a much-needed boost in subscribers