Under siege, Chinese telecoms gear champions Huawei and ZTE pitch 5G plans at MWC Barcelona
- Shenzhen-based Huawei and ZTE push latest 5G products and innovations at mobile industry’s biggest trade show
- Huawei and ZTE, combined, have the biggest number of 5G standard essential patents in the world
Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecoms equipment supplier, has been under siege amid the Trump administration’s pressure to get its 5G gear banned in mobile networks around the world over alleged security concerns and after a US indictment that accuses the Chinese company of financial fraud and violation of trade sanctions against Iran, among nearly two dozen charges.
Meanwhile ZTE Corp, China’s No. 2 telecoms equipment maker, has been under a cloud after losing an estimated US$3.1 billion from US-imposed sanctions last year. ZTE agreed to pay a US$1.4 billion fine in September to lift the restrictions, which had barred the company from buying vital, US-made components, including semiconductors.
However, any concerns that these headwinds may have put Shenzhen-based Huawei and ZTE on the back foot in promoting their next-generation 5G network technologies flew out of the window this week at the opening of the annual MWC Barcelona, the world’s biggest mobile industry exhibition.
Privately-held Huawei set up five booths in four different halls, occupying a sizeable chunk of the total amount of floor space at the MWC Barcelona exhibition in the city’s Fira Gran Via complex. Each Huawei booth featured specific products, with its network equipment exhibit in Hall No. 1 being the biggest.
ZTE had the largest booth in Hall No. 3, where the Hong Kong-listed company was close to the booths of its strategic partners including US chip firms Qualcomm and Intel as well as French multinational telecoms network operator Orange.