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Huawei, Failing to Crack U.S. Market, Signals a Change in Tactics

97 points| johnny313 | 8 years ago |nytimes.com | reply

67 comments

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[+] bookperson|8 years ago|reply
On a related note, the other Chinese telecom devices provider ZTE looks to be half dead - ZTE will probably lose Android licensing soon. https://www.cnet.com/news/zte-may-lose-android-licensing-fro... And lose access to vital parts for 7-10 years.

Huawei will most likely try to focus its attention on Europe and Asia. However, other countries might follow suit with US soon, following FCC's proposal to withhold money from suppliers (such as Huawei). https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/huawei-moving-from-u...

South Korea, for example, has started questioning Huawei's close ties with the CCP https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/03/south-korean-carriers-fac...

looks like Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung will be the winners here, with Samsung most likely winning the 5G race in US, and Nokia/Ericsson in Europe

[+] wegwerfbenutzer|8 years ago|reply
Huawei has lots of big customers in Germany and invests big money into 5G. I think nobody can compete with Huawei in Germany. Huawei themselves see ZTE as a big competitor in China and they also think they already "won" the race in Germany. You need lots of money to change the infrastructure to some other hardware provider. And I think noone can compete with Huawei's prices.
[+] AndrewKemendo|8 years ago|reply
Evidence that Huawei has deep ties to the Ministry of State Security and Third People's Liberation Army - the CIA and NSA respectively for China - is public and well documented [1][2][3][4]. The argument goes, that if widely adopted in the US, Huawei/ZTE would pose a national security risk. As a result, the US wants to put barriers to the adoption of their technology in the US.

It's worth having the debate about the merits of this argument, and resulting stances/actions taken by the USG.

[1] https://intelligence.house.gov/sites/intelligence.house.gov/...

[2] http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/11/30/feds-quietly-reveal-chin...

[3] https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/11/chinese-tel...

[+] bshepard|8 years ago|reply
Do you think the same argument, if applied more generally, would lead towards the exclusion of all foreign tech companies from all nations? Thinking here of the deep ties between Google, Amazon, Facebook, PayPal and the US military-industrial complex.
[+] chrischen|8 years ago|reply
US issues national security letters to US based cloud companies for access to data, and has tried to force a US company (Apple) to create back doors to its encryption.

This is perspective on at least one major reason companies like Facebook and Google were blocked in China.

If all Chinese people developed a habit of using Facebook it would essentially (in theory at least) allow the US government to spy on Chinese citizens.

[+] lern_too_spel|8 years ago|reply
> US issues national security letters to US based cloud companies for access to data

NSLs can only be used to get non-content data, like whom an email was sent from and to. China intercepts and filters the actual content of all communication. https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/960948/what-happens-when...

> and has tried to force a US company (Apple) to create back doors to its encryption.

Apple had a "backdoor" to access data on its own phones via installing a build that disabled password attempt throttling. The FBI simply asked Apple to use its backdoor on the FBI's behalf, not to create a new backdoor that the FBI could use on its own. In China, Apple acceded to the government's demands to block any VPN service that prevents front door access by the government. https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2017/07/30/apple...

[+] JumpCrisscross|8 years ago|reply
> This is perspective on at least one major reason companies like Facebook and Google were blocked in China

There is zero correlation between security and being blocked in China. There is a strong correlation between competing with politically-connected Chinese entities and getting blocked / being forced to surrender key IP. The backdoor argument is a red herring.

[+] astebbin|8 years ago|reply
Isn't this comparison a little disingenuous? The scale, scope, and legality of government surveillance (not to mention censorship) in the U.S. absolutely pales in comparison to the situation in China.

If all Chinese people developed a habit of using Facebook, perhaps they could openly criticize aspects of both the U.S. and Chinese governments, instead of just the former.

EDIT: I'm not surprised to see downvotes when the top-voted comment on this link (which is about a Chinese company getting into the U.S., and has nothing directly to do with Google or Facebook being blocked in China) is essentially, "And you are lynching Negroes" [0].

If anyone would care to disagree with words, I'd love to hear your reasoning or relevant experience.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_you_are_lynching_Negroes

[+] onetimemanytime|8 years ago|reply
>>This is perspective on at least one major reason companies like Facebook and Google were blocked in China.

Uh huh is the phrase.

China, like USA and every major country, wants total (and ideally exclusive) control. China can never have that so they banned FB and Google. Chinese versions popped up and they are not missing anything.

I use FB occasionally, and have zero Chinese friends, or Egyptian for that matter. A "FB" clone can do extremely well in just one country; those that have many friends and family in China can join FB clones from Canada, Germany or wherever they are from.

[+] pbhjpbhj|8 years ago|reply
For all we know Apple complied, and the relevant TLA created a media storm about how they didn't in order to convince people, who they wanted to watch, to use Apple.
[+] Fjolsvith|8 years ago|reply
I once bought a Chinese brand tablet and it turned out to have a malicious root installed. Why would I even think of buying a Huawei phone when there are rumors that they have spyware installed?
[+] pbhjpbhj|8 years ago|reply
Because you're in the 99% of the population who don't care?

GCHQ are already spying on me, along with every bank, social media company, large business, ... China can know about my inane existence too.

Chinese companies probably made all the network infrastructure already. My ISP uses Chinese made routers.

[+] bclemens|8 years ago|reply
> buys a chinesium tablet with a rootkit > assumes all chinese devices are compromised China's a big country with a lot of companies, I wouldn't lump them all together.
[+] jason46|8 years ago|reply
What tablet is not made in China?

My young daughter has a T3 Media pad and it has been the best tablet in that price range she has had and hasn't been destroyed so far.

[+] levosmetalo|8 years ago|reply
Because if you live in the your government, companies and individuals in your country will have much harder time getting your data from the Chinese, than from the US or other western companies you can "trust".

/s

[+] coldacid|8 years ago|reply
I would be happy to see us follow suit up here in Canada, but given that JT is at least part-owned by the PRC, I doubt it'll happen. I miss the good old days when we had our own telecoms equipment manufacturer. Northern Telecom, for all its faults, put out good stuff.
[+] mlok|8 years ago|reply
Oh. That is why we hear lots of Huawei ads on French radio all of a sudden. (I don't have a TV but I guess it's the same there) I noticed it, and it felt weird. Now I understand better :

The US market is gone, so they target the EU market more aggressively now.

[+] barrongineer|8 years ago|reply
I'm really disappointed by this. To my knowledge, the upcoming Matebook X Pro was the only non-Apple device that has a taller than 16x9 aspect ratio and Thunderbolt 3. These are two criteria that are fairly important to me.
[+] manishsharan|8 years ago|reply
QQ: If I were to wipe a Huawei latptop and install Ubuntu, is my device still vulnerable to malicious rootkts etc. what if I swapped out the harddrive. The Matebook X looks very tempting . and someone has already got this work to with Debian https://github.com/lidel/linux-on-huawei-matebook-x-2017
[+] Lionsion|8 years ago|reply
> If I were to wipe a Huawei latptop and install Ubuntu, is my device still vulnerable to malicious rootkts etc. what if I swapped out the harddrive.

If the rootkit is in the firmware or BIOS, you'd still be vulnerable.

[+] xchip|8 years ago|reply
Got a Huawei phone, it sucks, they have disabled lots of software features (OTG, MHL, miracast) just to make you pay for them in a more expensive model
[+] pbhjpbhj|8 years ago|reply
Sounds like your phone sucks because you paid the amount a sucky phone sells for in your market?

I've got a cheap Huawei ("Honor"), so far it seems no better or worse than other same price phones. Probably slightly better value than most tbh. It does miracast, which is default in Android since 4.4 I think (?), no idea about USB-OTG or connecting to HDMI.

Only problem I have is how to pronounce the name "ho-nor"? Always makes me think "hold the nor-gate". #britishproblems

[+] ec109685|8 years ago|reply
Trusting networking gear to not eavesdrop on data is quaint. Moving to a world of end to encryption should keep at least everyone besides the carrier / device manufacturers themselves out of your conversations and data transmissions. Then worse that could happen with a rogue vendor is a denial of service.
[+] cm2187|8 years ago|reply
But if for instance your electricity grid or 911 calls rely on the service, a denial of service can be a pretty big deal.
[+] godzillabrennus|8 years ago|reply
The article mentions that WISPS will be impacted. Aren’t they all using Ubiqiti?
[+] ferongr|8 years ago|reply
Huawei's equipment is almost too cheap to be able to ignore it. Here in Europe most telecommunication equipment (DSL, GPON, LTE radios, CPEs etc) installed in the past 5 years comes from Huawei and ZTE.

I don't know whether Huawei and ZTE carry Chinese state backdoors in them, but if China had a plan to widely distribute equipment around the globe to be able to tap into any connection, it would have already succeeded.

[+] graton|8 years ago|reply
I read it as small telecoms. Not WISPs (Wireless Internet Service Providers). So companies which provide cell phone service. I don't think Ubiquiti is in the cell phone service market.
[+] grahamburger|8 years ago|reply
Some of the WISPs I've worked with (I've worked with quite a few) use Ubiquiti (or similar) wireless equipment with Huawei switches.
[+] spitfire|8 years ago|reply
What's the deal with ubiqiti? Do they use Huawai parts or what?

I had understood them to be a fairly competent company delivering good products.

[+] nsxwolf|8 years ago|reply
Have they considered a name change for the US market?
[+] pbhjpbhj|8 years ago|reply
My Huawei is branded "Honor" (sic) in UK.