Huawei: Inside the lair of the not-so-hidden dragon

Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei has a bit of an image problem. It pulled in revenues of more than £10bn in the first half of 2012, thanks to its status as the number two maker of telecommunications infrastructure in the world, just behind Ericsson. It also operates a burgeoning enterprise business and its fast-growing …

[Jeff Minter]

Sinophobia

They do have an issue with PR, such is the virulence of the word communism that ANY successful company coming from China will have, at the very least, mutterings and speculation (most likely from anyone in the world wanting to block Chinese global success) of having help from its Communist government. It's ironic considering, in the early days of the great American and British companies we know of the world over today, they have had extensive government backing, whether it's funds or preferential treatment.

Of course this would be fine if it was tit for tat, the trouble is that Chinese consumers WANT western brands, whilst vice versa the opposite is true (Made in China is not the same as a Chinese brand, where the company takes the lion's share of the profits, unlike the poor slave workers in the factory)

[Ramazan]

Re: Sinophobia

90% of Muslims I met were lying to me in one way or another - it's just part of their culture^Wattitude towards infidels, so I think we can just ignore _everything_ Huawei tells, by extension to the Islam principle

[Yes Me]

Chinese brand?

iirc, it was quite a number of years before Westerners took Japanese or Korean brands seriously. Why would it be different for China? And asserting all sorts of evil properties in a competitor or its products is hardly a new pattern of behaviour by incumbent companies and their tame politicians. It's just a shame that said politicians are incapable of critical thought about what they are being fed by vested interests. (Not that this is news, d'oh.)

[John 62]

Jeff Minter!

it's Jeff Minter!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Jeff Minter!

Riding a llama, no doubt.

[Jeff Minter]

Iran

Also I find it laughably hypocritical of you and others to mention doing business with Iran as another bad point - the US and UK has dealings with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, various Middle East, South American and African dictators and other dubious characters/borderline war criminals....

[Aldous]

Re: Iran

But those are our kind of repressive civilian beating states(who have also backed off Israel, coincidence eh?) not the scruffy muslim kind. what next sell iran some eurofighters to replace their F-14's! pish posh!

[Jay Holmes]

Re: Iran @Aldous

You do realise that Bahrain, Africa and the Middle East are predominantly Muslim!!!

[Jay Holmes]

Re: Iran

Don't forget that the British SAS had a hand in training the Taliban (to fight the Russians), Saddam's Republic Guard were also trained by us, the US allowed the IRA to collect funds which were then used to blow up British targets.

So yes I agree it is a bit hypocritical to mention doing business with Iran as a bad point, if certain countries don't want to do business with you and other ones do, what choice do you have??

Well done El Reg, this seemed (for a change) to be a well written (bitchfest free) article can we have some more please??

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Iran

Doing business with one dictatorship doesn't justify doing it with another.

[Annakan]

Re: Iran

Iran is close to have the nuclear bomb AND launchers AND has a really crazy leadership AND has swore to NUKE ant least another country AND has ties to many "terrorist" group he could provide dirty ABC stuff too (whoever fostered or otherwise helped those terrorist groups is not the point here).

Relativism is another form of stupidity and a bad hide for cowardliness, NOT all things are equals, definitely not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Iran

NetanPolski has been pushing the same "close to" stuff for the last 20 years.

He's in his last term of office now, not permitted to run for office again, let him froth, then retire.

[Jay Holmes]

Re: Iran

By the extension of that Argument

America/US have nukes, our governments are made up of people that are lacking a few brainwaves, at one point or another we have said we will nuke another country (and the US has actually done this!!) and we have ties to many terrorist groups as well.

You say that relativism is another form of stupidity and a bad hide for cowardliness, that just shows your own short sightedness in failing to see the big picture. I agree that not all things are equal but if you fail to look at all sides of the argument then you have already lost the argument!

If there are concerns over the Huawai kit then surely we have people within our own countries (and I know the UK does) that can reverse engineer the kit to inspect it.

[The Cube]

Re: Iran - FFS

PANIC ! PANIC ! THE HOMERSEXUAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TERRERISTS ARE COMING !

FFS you moron, your description is also perfect for the United Kingdom and the United States of America, many other cultures and countries consider our leadership to be crazy Christians, one of us has actually nuked another country, both of us sell weapons to anyone whose goals temporarily align with ours irrespective of human rights or anything else. Our politicians do whatever they need to do to support the perceived security and prosperity of the voters they need to re-elect them in a few years time, any ethical objections find themselves sidelined by other considerations well before the election for the vast majority of politicians. Go ask Ollie North if the good ol US of A has ever dealt with terrorists, or even better, ask if they have sent the NORAID senators who funded the IRA for decades for trial in the UK. (Not USA bashing, BAE and our Govt are just the same, they do what is expedient at the time.)

If you believe the story spouted by western politicians about Iranian weapons then you presumably also saw with your own eyes the massive stockpiles and factories for NBC weapons we found in Iraq which were ready to launch in 45 minutes...

Go back to hiding under the Daily Mail

[Waspy]

Re: Iran - FFS

I don't think he is a Daily Mail reader, he has heard of Iran. The Mail rarely has time for anything else other than running articles on spurious cancer causes/cancer cures, the Royal Family, property prices and thieving rotten immigrants. Maybe Kate Middleton had some Iranian food once and there was an article on it

[dssf]

a few thoughts

"I like my job....." came to mind as i thought of Simon van Gelder, hahaha

As for patents, they better recognize that it is not a novel idea to cool cabinets vs the entire roo. That idea and actuality can be seen in IT spaces back at least 5 years refined and 10 years in more primitive implementations. What will be novel or, rather, patent worthy will be SPECIFIC components in the arrangement. But, just look at car engines: cooling tubes and ducts can be found doing their tasks in various areas of the engine compartment because ambient airflow is either inefficient or virtually nonexistent.

Logan‘s Run.... Hahaha, i like that reference, as it was van Gelder i was thinking of just before seeing tge LR reference.

[DF118]

If it does have back doors as standard, the only difference in that regard between Huawei kit and yesterday's stuff, like System X, is the people making it. Interesting how this suddenly becomes an issue when the boot's on the other foot.

Good article though Reg - more like this please!

[DB2k]

I've been there. Its an incredible place. Some parts a real mix if new styles with history. Came out of one room into a lobby where there was a lady making tea and would perform a full Chinese tea ceremony. Then we went to the logistics area which was a dark warehouse controlled by robot arms whizzing around moving parcels.

[Anonymous Coward]

Only a matter of time

before the tea ceremony lady is replaced by robot arms

[Mondo the Magnificent]

What?

No photos of R&D Labs, Data Centres or pretty Chinese women?

I actually had to read this article to enjoy it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What?

How 'bout some photos of the food at least, or if you can't in Huawei''s office, then some jolly snaps downtown elsewhere. ok, guess you might have thought of this already, I shall go check the Shenzen article ;)

[Peter Simpson 1]

Innovative?

Weren't these the folks who were building clones of the Cisco routers and running copied Cisco code in them? I think I've discovered the reason they are able to grow so quickly...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Innovative?

And now Cisco themselves build clones of their own stuff in China, only they requested slightly less over-engineering this time round ;) OK joke joke

[cap-sip]

Great food, no photos!

I was there on a project & software review workshop for a week several years ago - I can concur with the author about the food quality available on the campus - it is only to be expected that the the formal customer "wining &dining" restaurant rooms had great food, but so did the canteen for the normal staff.

As to why there are no photos of the R&D areas - simple, cameras are banned - indeed, I was lucky that I was allowed to keep my smart phone with built in camera on me - my laptop had to be locked away in a secure locker before I was allowed to enter the development areas.

[Anonymous Coward]

Show us the money

This notion that Huawei's gear is somehow backdoored or faulty because some people think that the Chinese government is untrustworthy and is pulling the strings is deeply troubling.

Either a) it's true, which would be dynamite; or b), it's false , in which case some w**ker is trading in barely-disguised innuendo instead of competing. I hear this claim all the time, but no one has EVER shown the evidence. So I think it's (b).

Huawei certainly were not angels over Cisco IOS, but that's the only violation I know about, and they settled with Cisco. It makes them no worse than, say Samsung vs Apple. So where's the rest of the evidence?

I don't have any stake in Huawei, but I find the total absence of evidence deeply suspicious.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Show us the money

Plus apart from that, lots of networking gear has similar commands clearly cribbed from IOS, not just Chinese stuff.

A bit like how many MS-DOS commands are weirdly similar to UNIX ones.

[Nigel 11]

Last sentence

depend on just how much it’s prepared to bend to Western expectations of how a technology company should be run

Hmmm. You mean have the company run by a board of despots who stuff as much of the profits into their own pockets as they can, while skimping on the R&D and putting as many employees in their own country out of a job by outsourcing manufacture to somewhere that slave labour is all but legal? (Which somewhat ironically, is often elsewhere in China). Not giving a damn about the long-term future of the organisation, because the short-term determines how many more millions they'll have to retire on? Replacing doing the right thing for its customers, with extracting every last penny from its customers by any legal means and many not so legal?

Compared to many of our companies, this sounds pretty utopian. It also sounds not unlike the non-company that I'd like to buy shares in if I could, but I can't - John Lewis partnership. Anyway, more like that, than a limited company. Also shades of how a top UK university used to be, before the government decided it ought to be run by professional parasites, sorry, managers.

If it's just an act, it's a very expensive and successful one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Backdoors

So iOS devices have backdoors??? I mean they are made and assembled in China, after all.

[Huawei Employee]

Employee Share Program

The employee share program mentioned at the start of the article has many similarities to a Ponzi scheme.

The current global economic situation and Huawei lay-offs have the banks and laid off workers cashing out from Huawei along with decreased Govt. "investments" flowing in.

Difficulties in breaking into the western market have pretty much stopped expansion revenue.

What happens to a Ponzi Scheme when the cash stops flowing in?

"Black Days" as some executives have said.

[Senior Ugli]

In soviet china, phone calls you