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India’s Political Climate Inhibiting Huawei from Grabbing Emerging 5G market
July 05, 2020
Europe is a battleground for the US ban on Huawei and ZTE 5G telecom products, with considerable pressure by the US to honor the ban. While the political climate changes daily, Europe is not the real battlefield for Huawei and the US is not the only antagonist to Huawei’s telecom equipment plans, with the company now being caught up in the Indian/Chinese border conflict that continues to escalate. Earlier this week the Indian government banned TikTok, WeChat and over 50 other apps owned by Chinese companies, citing their ‘threat to India’s sovereignty, although most believe it is a further escalation of the battle over the Indian/Chinese border.
Huawei was encouraged when they were given the OK to participate in 5G trials in January, against the push by the US government, which has been effective in convincing Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Taiwan to avoid Huawei’s 5G offerings. While the Indian government allowed Huawei to participate in the trials there was a lingering distrust of the Chinese government before the recent conflict, tracing back to another border conflict in the early 60’s, and previous accusations by some that Huawei was using strategic backdoors to spy on the Indian population. Given that India is the world’s fastest growing telecommunications market, just the trials were a big win for Huawei. Since then the border conflict, anti-Chinese sentiment has sparked considerable animosity that Indian politicians are using as political capital. The Indian communications ministry has met with India’s mobile operators to get their views on the impact and cost of banning Huawei and whether others would be able to fill India’s 5G needs and state-run 4G operators were told to use Indian equipment manufacturers as long as they met global standards. While the conflict seems to be tilting away from Huawei, participation in the trials was due to requests by India’s largest telecom operators who use Huawei equipment for 3G and 4G networks. Some smaller Indian operators have already chosen Huawei for their 5G networks, while the larger carriers are still in trials. Huawei was already facing an uphill battle due to US pressure, so the border conflict and the associated has made things appreciably worse for Huawei with little of the responsibility of their own doing. While Huawei’s share of the European 4G mobile RAN market is ~44%, it is potentially a smaller playing field than India, so the outcome of the border war and the results of the Indian government’s ‘investigation’ as to the effect of a Huawei ban will be far more significant to Huawei in the long run. On the smartphone side, Huawei has less than a 10% share of the 2nd largest market, so the stakes are small.
July 05, 2020
Europe is a battleground for the US ban on Huawei and ZTE 5G telecom products, with considerable pressure by the US to honor the ban. While the political climate changes daily, Europe is not the real battlefield for Huawei and the US is not the only antagonist to Huawei’s telecom equipment plans, with the company now being caught up in the Indian/Chinese border conflict that continues to escalate. Earlier this week the Indian government banned TikTok, WeChat and over 50 other apps owned by Chinese companies, citing their ‘threat to India’s sovereignty, although most believe it is a further escalation of the battle over the Indian/Chinese border.
Huawei was encouraged when they were given the OK to participate in 5G trials in January, against the push by the US government, which has been effective in convincing Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Taiwan to avoid Huawei’s 5G offerings. While the Indian government allowed Huawei to participate in the trials there was a lingering distrust of the Chinese government before the recent conflict, tracing back to another border conflict in the early 60’s, and previous accusations by some that Huawei was using strategic backdoors to spy on the Indian population. Given that India is the world’s fastest growing telecommunications market, just the trials were a big win for Huawei. Since then the border conflict, anti-Chinese sentiment has sparked considerable animosity that Indian politicians are using as political capital. The Indian communications ministry has met with India’s mobile operators to get their views on the impact and cost of banning Huawei and whether others would be able to fill India’s 5G needs and state-run 4G operators were told to use Indian equipment manufacturers as long as they met global standards. While the conflict seems to be tilting away from Huawei, participation in the trials was due to requests by India’s largest telecom operators who use Huawei equipment for 3G and 4G networks. Some smaller Indian operators have already chosen Huawei for their 5G networks, while the larger carriers are still in trials. Huawei was already facing an uphill battle due to US pressure, so the border conflict and the associated has made things appreciably worse for Huawei with little of the responsibility of their own doing. While Huawei’s share of the European 4G mobile RAN market is ~44%, it is potentially a smaller playing field than India, so the outcome of the border war and the results of the Indian government’s ‘investigation’ as to the effect of a Huawei ban will be far more significant to Huawei in the long run. On the smartphone side, Huawei has less than a 10% share of the 2nd largest market, so the stakes are small.
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Barry Young
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