huawei

Huawei offers Australia 'unrestricted' access to hardware, source code

Huawei has offered to give the Australian government "unrestricted" access to the firm's software source code and hardware equipment in an effort to dispel security fears, months after the Chinese telecoms giant was barred from supplying infrastructure equipment for the country's national broadband network.

The Australian government barred Huawei from bidding on contracts for the network earlier this year, saying it had a "a responsibility to do our utmost to protect [the network's] integrity and that of the information carried on it".

John Lord, Huawei's Australian chairman, said on Thursday that the … Read more

White House reportedly finds no evidence of spying by Huawei

An 18-month review by the White House found "no clear evidence" that Chinese telecommunications gear maker Huawei had performed any spying on behalf of the Chinese government, according to a Reuters report.

The news service, citing two unnamed sources, said the White House looked into reports of suspicious activity, with the help of intelligence agencies and other government departments, and queried nearly 1,000 telecom equipment buyers. One of the sources said that "certain parts of government" very much wanted evidence of espionage. In the end, though, they came up with nothing definitive.

"We would … Read more

Huawei desperate to crack the top-tier U.S. brands

SAN DIEGO--A year ago at CTIA (now known as MobileCon), Huawei announced plans to become a top-five vendor in three years' time. A year into its push to crack the U.S. market, Huawei is only baby steps closer to reaching its goal.

When I met with Huawei in San Diego earlier this week, company spokespeople said that consumers' brand awareness grew from 6 percent in 2011 to 9 percent in 2012.

The 3 percent growth isn't much to crow about, not when brand awareness hovers at 49 percent in the South Pacific region, 29 percent in northern Latin … Read more

Tech giants to talk patent reform at the U.N.

Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants are meeting in Switzerland today to discuss patent litigation reform, seeking to find ways to protect their intellectual property without hurting innovation.

The roundtable, hosted by the U.N.'s International Telecommunication Union in its Geneva headquarters, will cover topics such as "potential improvements to existing policy frameworks, entitlement to injunctive reliefs, and definitions of what constitutes a royalty base."

The group hopes to find out how standard essential patents can be enforced without hindering competition and how to make sure licenses can be offered at reasonable terms.

"We are … Read more

New wave of complaints hound Huawei, ZTE in U.S.

Huawei and ZTE, two of China's largest and most successful mobile companies, are once again under fire in the U.S.

Over the last couple of days, the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has received "dozens and dozens" of calls complaining about Huawei and ZTE, Reuters is reporting today, citing sources. Many of those calls reportedly came from current and former employees, as well as customers, who report odd behavior in the companies' equipment. It's not clear what sort of "odd" behavior they were witnessing.

Earlier this week, lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee issued a 52-page report … Read more

SpaceX rocket engine shut down at launch

Monday's CNET Update finds a few problems:

Although it appeared to be a flawless launch, there was a problem with one of the engines of the SpaceX Falcon 9. About a minute after takeoff, one of the engines detected a drop in pressure and shut down. Video posted on YouTube shows debris falling off in what some have called an explosion. SpaceX said the engine did not explode, but rather the protective fairing for the engine ruptured due to the pressure change. The other engines compensated for the failed engine, as was designed to happen if there was a … Read more

Huawei, ZTE face new hurdles to their U.S. phone ambitions

Congress just made Huawei and ZTE's goal of winning over U.S. consumers a whole lot tougher.

A report released by the House Intelligence Committee today claimed the two Chinese telecommunications manufacturers pose a risk to national security and urged U.S. companies to avoid working with them.

While the report deals mostly with the companies' large-scale networking equipment and corporate customers, the trickle-down effect on their consumer-facing handset businesses can't be good. Huawei and ZTE have long been dogged by concerns that they could snoop on companies and individuals, and today's report only solidified those fears. … Read more

Lawmakers to U.S. companies: Don't buy Huawei, ZTE

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The House Intelligence Committee released a report this morning, accusing two Chinese makers of telecommunications gear of posing a national security threat and discouraging American businesses from buying their equipment.

In a 52-page report, the committee said that neither Huawei or ZTE addressed concerns raised repeatedly by lawmakers over their ability to snoop on American companies or individuals. And neither company was able to convince the committee that they could not be persuaded by the Chinese government to aid its espionage efforts if enlisted to do so.

"Neither company was willing to provide sufficient evidence to … Read more

Huawei will have tough time cracking U.S. data center market

By product line, Huawei looks like any other data center equipment provider. Storage, networking, and security software rolls out at a steady clip and market wins -- mostly in China and emerging markets -- follow.

Except for the U.S., where Huawei is a vendor that rankles national security experts and politicians regularly. When it comes to networking and telecom gear, Huawei is a relatively small player in the U.S. In fact, most IT buyers will recite the top vendors easily -- Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, and Hewlett-Packard. Huawei might as well not exist.

In emerging markets Huawei is … Read more