U.S. government reportedly tells allies to stop using Huawei products
Last month, a pair of U.S. Senators sent a letter to Justin Trudeau, telling the Canadian Prime Minister that he should prevent any Huawei technology from being used in the build out of Canada's 5G network. The letter was sent four months after senior U.S. lawmakers urged their Canadian counterparts to consider Huawei a threat to Canada's national security. Today, a report in the Wall Street Journal says that the U.S. has expanded its warnings about Huawei to reach all of its allies.
Going back to 2012, U.S. lawmakers have considered Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE to be threats to U.S. national security. This is due to speculation that products from the pair "spy" on American consumers and corporations and send this information to the Chinese government. Earlier this year, the U.S. government allegedly told AT&T and Verizon to cancel their plans to carry the Huawei Mate 10 Pro in their stores. Huawei is the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world after Samsung.
The Journal says that the U.S. has spoken to allies who already use Huawei networking equipment; those countries include Germany, Italy and Japan. According to the report, the U.S. is thinking about increasing the amount of financial aid it provides to countries for telecommunications development if they promise not to use equipment made by Chinese based companies.
In North America, Nokia is the leader in providing networking equipment, followed by Ericsson. However, Huawei is the leader in Europe and the Asian-Pacific market. Globally, Huawei has a leading 22% share of the global telecom-equipment market. Nokia and Huawei are next with 13% and 11% respectively. ZTE has a 10% slice of the pie.
Over the last few years, both Huawei and ZTE have denied that their products collect information for the Chinese government. Huawei released a statement today that says it is "surprised by the behaviors of the U.S. government. If a government’s behavior extends beyond its jurisdiction, such activity should not be encouraged."
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