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There are numerous opportunities for Huawei in China and in Europe, as the company looks to ramp up production of its 5G base stations
Huawei will continue with “business as usual”, despite the US deciding to blacklist the Chinese tech vendor. Speaking at the Mobile World Congress event in Shanghai earlier today, the company’s rotating chairman, Ken Hu, said that the US ban would have “no impact, whatsoever” on his company’s ability to deliver on its 5G commitments.
“We see no substantial evidence whatsoever for banning Huawei from doing business in the US. Over the past month we have taken a number of steps to minimise the impact of the ban on our business,” he said.
Hu said that Huawei had already shipped 150,000 5G base stations to international markets, as part of the 50 5G launch deals it has signed with 30 operators across the world. Huawei continues to see strong international support, particularly in Europe, where it has landed 28 5G launch deals.
Hu said that Huawei would look to increase its 5G base station shipments in the coming months, with a target of supplying 500,000 base stations by the end of the year.
While Europe and the Middle East continue to be key markets for Huawei, it will also see strong demand from its home market of China, as the country’s big three mobile network operators look to push ahead with large scale 5G network deployment in 2020. Given the scale of China’s 5G rollout, it is estimated that China’s mobile network operators will require hundreds of thousands of base stations each, with Huawei expected to supply at least 30 per cent of them.
Turning his attention back to current events in Europe, Hu remained upbeat, even as the US continues to cajole its allies into banning Huawei from their 5G networks.
“We will continue with our long-term strategy of supplying the best products at the best prices to our customers. We fully understand the complexity of 5G and the security concerns around 5G are legitimate ones.
“The EU’s current view is that technology is technology – there needs to be a set of neutral, common standards that are applied to everyone, instead of the current ideological based arguments used to punish certain vendors. We are fully supportive of this view.”
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