Huawei has confirmed that it is shifting the focus of its carrier business from the U.S. Chief Technology Officer for Huawei’s carrier networking group, Li Sanqi, said that “Apparently, due to whatever the geopolitical reasons, we are not focusing on the U.S. market.” In October last year a Congressional report stated that Huawei’s networking equipment could be a national security risk, the report advised telecom operators in the country to avoid purchasing such equipment from this company, which it believes to have ties with the Chinese government. Officials believe that Huawei’s equipment can be used by China to launch hacking attacks against the country, and seeing as how Chinese attack traffic reportedly tripled in the final quarter of 2012, it can prove to be difficult to refute this claim.
The U.S. accounts for 30% of the world’s carrier market and Huawei definitely wants to have a piece of it. However now it will be focusing its energies towards opportunities in growing markets such as China. U.S. is also going to take a firm stand against Chinese cyberattacks, the administration is reportedly considering a number of options which includes, but is not limited to, economic sanctions.
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