A big boost to Huawei although not quite true. Ericsson, by concentrating on 5G, has equally good equipment. Many people think Apple phones are better than Huawei because of the software. Nokia, Cisco, and Juniper make fully competitive switches and routers. The Hong Meng operating system is remarkable, but so is Android. Sir Jeremy Fleming is the Director of the Government Communications Headquarters, England’s spy agency.
From the New York Times:
The United States and its European partners have yet to offer truly competitive alternatives for much of the company’s networking equipment, officials from many countries say. “We have to be able to provide alternatives,” Mr. Fleming said. When pressed on whether Europe and the United States had provided those alternatives in the years since the campaign against Huawei gained traction, he acknowledged, “No, we don’t.”
David Sanger interview
Huawei is unique in being among the best in every category. Huawei spends $20 billion a year on research and development and all companies struggle to keep up. There are many exceptional engineers in the West.
Huawei wins in the marketplace because its management is the best in the industry. All the top managers have worked together for over 20 years and know how to cooperate. All work intense, 70-hour weeks. The government gives them strong support, but Western governments do the same for national champions.
Huawei is one of the most responsive companies
It provides the best service in the industry. When a problem arises, it does everything necessary to solve it quickly, sometimes dispatching two dozen engineers. While Western companies have been cutting employees, Huawei has been growing.
No large company in telecom is more open with reporters and analysts. Executives at Nokia, Ericsson, Cisco, and Samsung rarely go beyond what has been approved to say. In an era when everyone can see the press release, they expect you to repeat the company line.
Silicon Valley companies, including Apple, Google, and Facebook, are exceptionally tight-lipped. AT&T used to have “military-like” security, I was told by a senior executive. He feared being seen talking with a reporter could be “career-limiting.”
Huawei doesn’t give away all its secrets but has been very forthcoming with the details of current and future products. None of their engineers have ever misled me in more than a decade of reporting.
I wish I could say that about more companies.
For the record: Huawei has paid my expenses to go to their events