Huawei has played down the recent debate concerning security risks in the company’s hardware, insisting it will not affect the majority of its business - and may even have given it free global publicity.
A senior Huawei executive has said “95 percent” of its work would be unaffected by concerns led by the United States that its technology poses a national security risk.
Speaking at a media pre-brief event before Mobile World Congress next week, Ryan Ding, executive director of the board and president of Huawei’s carrier business group, said that the controversy may actually turn out to be a positive for the company, as it had led to a huge amount of publicity for its work.
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Huawei security risk
“Regarding the security question, there is some impact on some countries, but there will not be any impact on 95 percent of our market,” Ding, speaking through a translator, told a media roundtable attended by TechRadar Pro.
“On the contrary, in foreign markets, Huawei has become very popular, and known better by more customers and the public, so this is free advertising for us!”
Ding added that the added scrutiny was even benefiting the company’s current and future products, driving it to produce the best possible offerings it can.
“What's more because of this security pressure from the industry, Huawei is ever more motivated to make improvements on the performance and the quality of our products, and also our engineering, so that Huawei is not considered bad,” he said.
“And actually, because of the security concern, we have made an even bigger R&D investment this year into improving the compatibility of our products and make our services better.”
With MWC 2019 just around the corner, Huawei is set to have a significant presence at the show, and the company hopes to play a major role in the development and deployment of 5G networks across the world, in spite of suspicion against its work.
"I believe the misunderstanding will exist for some period of time,” Ding said, “but if we can continue to provide best product and services and continue to be open and transparent to the market, I believe that the pressure will turn into bigger momentum, and then opportunity.”
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