Australia Bans Huawei 5G Technology

The Australian branch of Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei tweeted on August 23 that the Australian government had informed them they were banned from providing 5G technology to Australia.

According to Huawei, the Australian government issued the ban out of safety considerations, which Huawei found groundless. “The safety consideration is actually a cover for some ‘political reasons'... Huawei has never received any request to collect information and intelligence for the [Chinese] government and no Chinese law ever stated that a Chinese enterprise should cooperate the government in intelligence service,” Huawei claimed in a public statement following the ban.

According to the Financial Times, Huawei is now the leading supplier of 4G services in Australia and has been cooperating with Australian telecom giants Optus and Vodafone in developing 5G technology. If the ban takes effect, the two giants would lag far behind in launching 5G services, and Australian users might pay a much higher price for the new technology, since at present only Telstra, another leading Australian provider of mobile phones, is not using Huawei technology.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Canberra of discrimination against Chinese companies. Huawei revealed that they are communicating with the Australian government and will take any possible legal measures to protect their rights and interests.