DICT: Huawei issue to have little impact
Credit to Author: LISBET K. ESMAEL| Date: Thu, 23 May 2019 16:14:27 +0000
THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Thursday shrugged off worries about rising tensions between the United States and China-based Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., saying they only had minimal impact on the local telecommunications sector.
“Local telcos have made pronouncements that they will diversify in their present and future procurements of equipment to make their networks more robust and future-proof,” the department said in a statement.
It comes after US President Donald Trump declared last week a national emergency to bar US companies from using foreign telecommunications equipment deemed a security risk — a move seen as targeting Huawei, which Washington suspects of being a potential proxy for Chinese intelligence services.
For its part, the US Commerce Department also announced an effective ban on US companies selling or transferring US technology to Huawei, though it later issued a 90-day reprieve.
Earlier this week, US internet giant Google said it would partially cut off Huawei devices from its Android operating system (OS). Huawei has since indicated that it could roll out its own OS this year in China and internationally next year.
Other firms, including chipmaker ARM, Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Lumentum Holdings and Panasonic, have followed Google’s lead.
Trump’s move came days after he increased tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to hike duties on $60 billion in American products.
On threats to the country’s cyberspace, the DICT assured that there was no “national security breach from their respective networks predominantly using Huawei equipment.”
The department “will continue to require local telecommunications companies to monitor their networks through world-class cybersecurity audit teams and assure the government that their respective network will not be compromised or they may suffer losing their license to operate” it said.
“The same requirement will also be imposed on the incoming third telco,” it added, referring to the Mislatel consortium — made up of Dennis Uy-led Udenna Corp. and Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. and state-run China Telecommunications Corp. — which was chosen last November to compete with the so-called duopoly of PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc.
Also on Thursday, Globe President and Chief Executive Officer Ernest Cu said Huawei, as its equipment supplier for its Fifth Generation (5G) network, had assured his company that their deal would be kept, despite the US ban.
“They have been very instrumental to Globe’s success. We’ve been assured … that our supply [would] continue. We continue to support them,” he said at a panel discussion at the Bloomberg Industry 4.0 in Taguig City.
Globe is on track to commercially launch the 5G network in June, tapping home subscribers outside Metro Manila, where consumers can experience internet speeds as fast as 1 gigabit per second (Gbps).
WITH A REPORT FROM AFP
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