Huawei in discussions with a number of US firms over plans to lease 5G tech

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has revealed that it is in the early stages of talks with a number of US companies over licencing its 5G network equipment to them.

A Reuters report quoted Huawei’s senior VP, Vincent Pang, as saying that some US firms had expressed an interest in the deal, originally suggested by the company’s founder Ren Zhengfei.

“There are some companies talking to us, but it would take a long journey to really finalize everything,” Pang told journalists from Reuters on a visit to Washington this week. “They have shown interest,” he said.

The US government claims that Huawei’s 5G network equipment could potentially be hacked by the Chinese government and therefore poses a threat to its national security. While the US has supplied no evidence to substantiate these allegations, it has wasted no time in attempting to strong-arm its allies into banning the Chinese tech giant from their own 5G rollout. The US has also placed Huawei on the Entities List, meaning that it is banned from doing business with any US firm.

Zhengfei suggested that one way around this impasse might be for Huawei to lease its 5G network technology to an American company, which would then be free to evaluate, and even alter, Huawei’s source code.

Pang stressed  that discussions between Huawei and the unnamed US companies were only in their infancy.

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