Ren Zhengfei, the CEO and founder of Huawei Technologies, recently expressed his willingness to share the company’s current 5G technology with potential companies in the West. In an interview with SCMP, Zhengfei said that by doing this, he hopes that this would help level the playing field and help create a 5G rival.
What Zhengfei is offering sounds quite lucrative too; potential buyers will be given perpetual access to Huawei’s existing 5G patents, licenses, code, technical blueprints. Plus, production know-how of the equipment, all for a one-time fee that Zhengfei fell short of quantifying.
To sweeten the pot further, Zhengfei also told SCMP that buyers would be allowed to modify the source of 5G equipment, which is rather unprecedented. For context, modifying Huawei’s infrastructure means that neither Huawei nor the Chinese government would have any hypothetical control over the technology or the company using it.
Zhengfei’s comment comes amidst the on-going trade wars between the US and China. As it stands, the Trump administration will be hitting the Chinese economic powerhouse with a 10% tariff on Chinese goods worth US$300 billion (~RM1.25 trillion) set to go into effect 15 December 2019. On top of all that, the Chinese brand is also barred from using and official version Google’s Android OS and Play store on future smart devices.
Despite the setbacks, the Chinese brand is reportedly still going ahead with the launch of its upcoming Huawei Mate 30, plus a 5G variant of the new flagship device.
(Source: SCMP)
