US Moves On To Asia, Warning Philippines Against Huawei 5G Technology

On Friday, Mike Pompeo the US Secretary of State warns about risks for American businesses that are operating in countries using 5G equipment made by the Chinese giant Huawei. This statement was made by Pompei in a press conference held in Manila; he also repeated US concerns over security issues from building 5G wireless networks with Huawei gear. According to Pompeo, the world had better stay cautious when it comes to security risks; the news was reported by Reuters.

Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State

Pompeo said in Reuter’s report:

The US concerns over security

The statement was made amid US efforts to urge countries to ban Huawei in particular and Chinese tech firms in general from selling 5G equipment. US security experts have alleged the telecom giant of giving information to the Chinese government, which the company denied.

As of now, some nations have already prohibited using Huawei’s networking devices, including European countries earlier this year. Last week, Pompeo pushed its allies harder by threatening that the US will not work with any countries adopting Huawei’s tech.

In particular, he said to Fox Business that the country wouldn’t share information with those who use Huawei tech in their critical info systems, they wouldn’t even co-locate American resources or an American embassy or an American military outpost.

As per Huawei, its rotating chairman said the reason for the US ban is because their equipment manufacturers are falling behind Chinese ones in the 5G game. Huawei has pleaded it’s not guilty of security risks. He stressed that the US’s global campaign against the company is not about security but more about blocking competition in the technology industry.

Is banning the best thing to do?

OpenVPN CEO Francis Dinha, however, thinks that a ban on Huawei gear may do more harm than good. While the tech expert agrees with the US about security risks from Chinese firms and especially Huawei, he believes countries can reduce those risks.

As stated by Dinha, governments need to ensure end-to-end security, no matter whose network equipment is used. Dinha said that it's crucial that operators be smarter about their way of deploying technology while not assuming any firm's gear is secure.

Still, Dinha says Huawei’s claims about its gear security are not completely trustworthy considering the close relationship it has with the Chinese government. Nevertheless, banning on Huawei can hurt US companies who are preparing to adopt its leading 5G tech.

He added that banning any player from the market is not a good move, with concerns over complacency of US firms if competition ceases. He said competition is critical for innovation and dropping Chinese 5G technology can make US fall even further behind other countries.

Wireless operators should be the one to decide whether to use the technology or not, instead of governments’ subjective decision. For example, in the US, Verizon and AT&T have chosen to pass Huawei gear while T-Mobile promised not to use Huawei’s devices to build its 5G network in a congressional hearing.