Huawei has warned that up to 1,500 employees of its Australian contractors could lose their jobs unless the country changes its decision to ban Huawei from providing telecommunications equipment for 5G.
On top of this ominous warning, Huawei is also pursuing legal claims against organisations that are making “false and malicious attacks” about its reputation in both Australia and worldwide.
Reelin' in the smears
"“Every smear against Huawei is also a smear against our hard-working staff and we want to make sure the important discussion around cyber security is based on facts and not baseless innuendo ."
Jeremy Mitchell, Huawei.
The company wants to minimize the commercial impact of the allegations which is causing more western countries to ban the company from the roll-out of 5G.
Last week, Spark New Zealand, confirmed it had changed plans to rely exclusively on Huawei for its 5G roll-out. The decision was made following concerns expressed by the nation’s intelligence agency.
“Every smear against Huawei is also a smear against our hard-working staff and we want to make sure the important discussion around cyber security is based on facts and not baseless innuendo that is unfortunately dominating the current discussion,” said Jeremy Mitchell, Huawei Australia’s director of corporate and public affairs.
Shunning Huawei
The debate as to whether Huawei is a trustworthy telecommunications equipment supplier is an ongoing one. The US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are key players in the debate, with Donald Trump threatening to limit intelligence sharing with nations that give Huawei a 5G role.
Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister, defends banning Huawei by saying that it was “in the national interest” to do so.
Huawei has a 55% market share in 4G in Australia, and by banning Huawei tech the company says that the Australian government is unnecessarily putting 1,500 jobs are at risk.
Jeremy Mitchell said, “we hope common sense prevails and that Huawei is ultimately allowed to deliver 5G in Australia in the way we are already doing in the UK, South Korea, Switzerland, Spain and many others.”
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