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Huawei Barred From NBN

AsiaBlog Ray Le Maistre, Editor-in-Chief 3/26/2012

5:00 AM -- Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has been controversially barred from participating in Australia's A$36 billion (US$37.6 billion) national next-generation broadband network because of security concerns, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

The network's construction and management is the responsibility of NBN Co Ltd. , which is headed by former Alcatel executive Mike Quigley. The decision to exclude Huawei, though, seems to have been made by the Australian government. (See Quigley's NBN Revamp and Australia Clears NBN Hurdle.)

Huawei, already a supplier to a number of Australian carriers including SingTel Optus Pty. Ltd. and Vodafone Hutchison Australia , had been hoping for a major slice of the NBN network infrastructure action but this decision by the Australian government could hand an advantage to rivals Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) and Nokia Networks .

Security concerns are dogging Huawei in a number of markets, most particularly in the U.S. (See Huawei, ZTE Probed by Intelligence Agency, US Blocks Huawei LTE Bid , More Security Woes for Huawei, Global Vendors Face Tough New Rules in India and Huawei's Open Letter to the US.)

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading

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moon_shot 12/5/2012 | 5:38:18 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

Huawei stole every single IP document from Nortel Networks over a 10 year period, as recently reported globally.  Hmmm.  Sounds like an upstanding and forthright company to me.

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digits 12/5/2012 | 5:38:16 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

I think what you are refering to is this report:

 

Nortel Collapse Linked To Hacking Attack

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/02/15/nortel-collapse-hackers_n_1280435.html

 

which itself is a report of unsubstantiated claims that Nortel was hacked for a long time by people allegedly based in China.

Maybe we should stick to what we know?

And just to point out - this is not a defense of any individual company or country. Every individual, company and country should be treated equally and not be damned for anything they haven't been proven to have done. 

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helsaint 12/5/2012 | 5:38:14 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

What doesn't make sense is a ban on Huawei but no mention of ZTE. If they are so paranoid about security and don't trust the Chinese vendors then ZTE should be banned too. Will the Australian government go on to ban Vodafone and co. from using Huawei gear too? Seems idiotic to me.

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shygye75 12/5/2012 | 5:38:14 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

What's odd -- or at least counterintuitive -- about this is that China is Australia's top trading partner, mainly because of all the natural resources that Oz ships out. You'd think "the government" would handle things a little more diplomatically.

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moon_shot 12/5/2012 | 5:38:12 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

The Huff post article is off center from all the other versions of this story reported last month.  Huff blew most of it off.  Go find the full version, read it.

Getting speaking points from the Chinese and then stating "Huawei continues to say it isn't doing this" isn't reporting it's repeating.

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digits 12/5/2012 | 5:38:06 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

I should have made myself clearer -- I was referring to companies etc being damned on these boards and elsewhere in the public domain. I don't expect to see any instances involving corporate espionage linked to China end up in court.

What I'm cautioning against is taking the testimony of an individual who says Nortel was hacked for 10 years and that the trace lead to China, and turning that into "Company X stole all of Nortel's IP for 10 years".

 

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digits 12/5/2012 | 5:38:06 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

I linked to Huff Post version because it's one that everyone can access - with Wall Street Journal many people can only see the first par and then have to pay.

You say the Huff "blew most of it off" - I don't know what that means but both articles say the same thing - that a Nortel security staffer says Nortel was hacked for 10 years and the trace went back to China.  

That sounds like pretty solid testimony and it's believable in the same way that it is believable that every large company, and their respective countries, are spying on their rivals in any way possible. 

Offering a right of reply to countries/companies that are being accused of something is standard practise. Of course no one is going to admit spying but the question has to be asked and the response included.

Light Reading has reported over the years there are plenty of episodes in which Huawei staff have been directly implicated in such scenarios, the most blatant of which was at Supercomm when the Light Reading team actually tracked down the Huawei employee who was photographing Fujitsu's line cards at the back of Fujitsu's stabnd after hours... (http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=55172)

BUT -- What the recent article regarding Nortel does not say, at any point, is that 'company X' was stealing Nortel's IP for 10 years. 

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sigint 12/5/2012 | 5:38:06 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

"And just to point out - this is not a defense of any individual company or country. Every individual, company and country should be treated equally and not be damned for anything they haven't been proven to have done. "

______________________________________________________________________

 

This is a utopian scenario, and not quite tenable in the real world. Often enough, proof does exist, but it can't be presented in open court, since it has been obtained by covert means. In any case, this is not a matter for courts to decide, and hence onus of proof does not rest with any prosecution.

This was the same story in India - intelligence and security services were dead against allowing Huawei into any networks. There was audacious attack, where the Prime Minister's office was hacked in to! Is that conceivable without vendor connivance?

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communication_notworking 12/5/2012 | 5:37:26 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

If you have to buy networking and security equipment, which vendor's technology would you trust - the company which was itself hacked for 10 years and still didn't have a clue or the one who managed to do hack/steal from it.

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Soupafly 12/5/2012 | 5:36:38 PM

re: Huawei Barred From NBN

@ communication_notworking; Why not avoid both? Look for a company that is "clean" and has a good understanding of the sector and threats & then deal with them.

"Clean" is in quotation marks because I fully understand this is a qualititive and subjective term thats contextual.

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