Huawei has announced that it is "as committed as ever" to delivering "the best equipment" to Britain’s 5G mobile and full-fibre broadband providers.
The Chinese telecom giant’s open letter to the public comes as Huawei is launching a newspaper and Internet campaign to mark 20 years of its business in the UK.
Speaking at the BBC on Monday, Huawei Vice President and head of its UK operations Victor Zhang, in turn, explained that the advertising campaign’s goal is to help people know the facts about the company amid all the "noise" related to the firm.
He voiced hope that Britain would take an "evidence and fact-based approach" on Huawei, warning of the far-reaching economic repercussions of the company’s possible exclusion from participating in building the UK’s 5G network.
“We believe the UK will definitely review this based on the facts and the evidence, because the UK will take its own interests very seriously”, the Huawei vice president said.
He underscored the need to “work closely to address the issue”, but added that Huawei should “take action to accelerate the broadband deployment” because the company doesn’t “have time to delay this”.
UK Seeking ‘New Entrants’ in 5G Market
The interview comes after The Times reported last week that British Prime Boris Johnson was considering increasing state funding for domestic telecoms companies, such as Vodafone and BT, so that they can better compete in the 5G sector, as part of London’s current efforts to diminish Huawei’s involvement in building the UK's 5G infrastructure.
This followed the UK government announcing in late May that they had been “seeking new entrants” into the country’s 5G telecommunications market since January, “something we have been speaking with our allies about including the United States”.
The announcement followed the government saying in February that they would give Huawei a limited role in building the UK's 5G network, despite previous warnings from Washington that the move could potentially compromise Britain's security and hamper intelligence-sharing between the US and the UK.
At the same time, London stressed at the time that Huawei would be excluded from the 5G network's "core" parts, such as security-related areas.
The announcement came amid a US crackdown on Huawei, which has been in place since May 2019, when the Department of Commerce prohibited Internet providers from using the company's products and American companies from selling technologies to the Chinese tech giant without obtaining a special license first.
The White House claims that the company is collaborating with the Chinese government to allow it to spy on those who use the tech titan's equipment, allegations that have been rejected by both Beijing and Huawei.
