Sprint’s ties to Chinese firm Huawei could complicate T-Mobile merger

collected by :Lara Phillip

Sprint's ties to Chinese firm Huawei could complicate T-Mobile merger Sprint is majority owned by Japan's SoftBank, which has worked with the Chinese telecom giantCongressional lawmakers are intent on urging President Donald Trump and his administration to closely examine Sprint's proposed merger with T-Mobile due to the former's ties to the Chinese government, according to a report from Bloomberg. Rather, it's that the US telecom is majority owned by Japan's SoftBank, which has worked with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. "The Sprint, T-Mobile merger would increase telecommunications risks associated with third-party foreign entities, including Huawei, being utilized in the development of US 5G infrastructure," the letter goes on to say. According to the letter, SoftBank is working with Huawei to use 5G technology to power service robots in Asia. Also, one of the primary arguments T-Mobile and Sprint have made for the merger is that it would accelerate America's ability to deploy 5G networks and better compete with Asian telecoms.

Australia's ban on Huawei could prove an expensive call

Australia's Huawei ban could be an expensive call. But a ban carries costs too: pricier 5G, and a longer route to improved ties with the country's best export customer. The relationship is certainly going through a rocky patch, even as two-way trade hit a record $125bn (€107bn) last year. Back in December, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull cited "disturbing reports about Chinese influence", when he announced plans to ban foreign political donations and other forms of meddling. Huawei also owns many essential patents, meaning that it will be almost impossible to avoid using some of its technology.

Huawei Australia CEO: We don't collect any data that could be sent to China

according to "Huawei doesn't own, doesn't manage, doesn't operate any data," Huang told ZDNet. The application of Huawei is to support our customers -- that means operators -- to build the system to manage those things. Huawei Australia CTO Dr David Soldani added that Huawei plays on the edges of Australia's mobile networks -- including the 4G-advanced networks of Optus and Vodafone -- "with no possibility of storing or handling of any kind of user information". Excluding Huawei from 5G deployments will put Australia behind other nations, Lord added. Huang was appointed as Huawei Australia CEO in January amid a move to push 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) projects locally.