Huawei makes end-run around US trade ban by turning to its own chips
- The world’s biggest telecoms equipment supplier shipped about 600,000 5G mobile base stations as of early February
- More than 50,000 of those gear were manufactured without US hi-tech components
Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant barred from doing business with US suppliers, is finding a way around the strict limits imposed by the Trump administration.
The US Commerce Department, citing national security concerns, has largely forbidden American companies from selling Huawei the computer chips it needs to make a piece of equipment integral to newly introduced 5G wireless networks. In response, China’s largest technology company ramped up its own capabilities to manufacture 5G base stations.
In a sign that the self-reliance is working, Huawei in the fourth quarter sold more than 50,000 of these next-generation mobile base stations that were free of US technology, according to Tim Danks, the US-based Huawei executive responsible for partner relations.
“It’s still our intention to return to using US technology,” he said. But the longer Huawei goes without access to US suppliers, the more unlikely it is to be able to return to using them, Danks added.
A base station is a piece of machinery that is used to connect mobile phones to fixed-line networks carrying internet traffic. Popular among telecoms providers, Mobile base stations from Huawei, which announced last month that it had 91 commercial 5G network equipment contracts, are widely considered among the most reliable for the price.