The Chinese state-owned tech company supplying signal-boosting laser amplifiers to the world’s largest financial centres
- Report reveals that Wuhan-based Accelink’s gear has been used in West for a decade
- Its clientele includes Huawei and it enjoys Nokia’s ‘complete trust’
As the row over Chinese technology giant Huawei’s role in fifth-generation (5G) networks rumbles on, some financial telecoms networks in the United States and Europe regarded as critical to economic stability and national security are using hardware, patented technology and software codes created by a company controlled by the Chinese government.
Shenzhen-listed Accelink Technologies Corporation, a company based in Wuhan, Hubei province, was formerly the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications’ Research Institute for Solid-state Components. It has supplied signal-boosting laser amplifiers to some of the world’s largest financial centres for nearly a decade, according to a report seen by the South China Morning Post.
These components speed up data transmission, enabling high-frequency trades that can make millions of dollars in situations where milliseconds are critical.
The report, drafted this year by the China Institute of Telecommunications, a government-run association for scientists and engineers, identified some of the projects and the Western companies that use Accelink technology.
They included high-speed financial data links between New York and Chicago, London and Frankfurt. Some non-financial networks across Europe used Chinese components, although the report did not say which ones.