Huawei: Production without US parts begins
Huawei Technologies Co Ltd said it has started making 5G base stations without United States components and that total production should more than double next year as more countries introduce the technology.
The company would start mass production of US componentfree 5G base stations next month, founder and chief executive officer Ren Zhengfei told a forum on Thursday.
“We carried out the testing in August and September, and from October on we will start scale production,” said Ren, adding that initially it would begin making 5,000 US component-free 5G base stations a month.
Annual production next year is expected to hit 1.5 million units, compared with 600,000 estimated for this year, which includes those made with US components and those without.
The world’s largest telecoms gear maker has been on a US trade blacklist since May over concerns its equipment could be used by Beijing to spy.
Huawei has repeatedly denied such allegations but has taken steps to minimise the impact.
The sanctions have resulted in the loss of access to key technologies and the latest version of its Mate 30 flagship phone, for example, will not come with Google Mobile Services.
Will Zhang, Huawei’s president of corporate strategy, said the performance of the US-free base stations was “no worse” and the company “has had positive surprises”.
Ren said Huawei would still like to use US components if possible because the company had “emotional ties” with long-time US suppliers.
He said this month he was open to selling the firm’s 5G technology — including patents, code, blueprints and production knowhow — to Western firms for a one-off fee.
He said Huawei was willing to license its 5G mobile technology to a US company, and that he was not afraid of creating a rival by making Huawei’s technology available to competitors.
The offer could also include chip design knowhow, Ren added.
Huawei, also the world’s No. 2 smartphone vendor, had said the US ban could push its smartphone unit’s revenue lower by about US$10 billion (RM41.9 billion) this year.