The White House plans to hold a conference with Huawei’s rivals to try to accelerate development of affordable competing 5G wireless technology, President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser said.
“We’re working carefully, closely with Nokia and Ericsson,” National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters on Friday. “We’re going to be holding some kind of a conference in about a month. I’m sure the president would join us in part, that would include Samsung, that will include all of our guys.”
He later told Fox Business that the meeting “might take place” in early April, and that companies including AT&T, Verizon Communications and Qualcomm would be represented.
The US has engaged in a campaign to persuade other countries not to use Huawei equipment in emerging 5G networks, but the effort has faltered due to a lack of competing technology. Attorney-general William Barr suggested recently the US government or American companies should consider investing in Huawei competitors Nokia of Finland and Ericsson of Sweden to try to prevent the Chinese company’s technology from being widely adopted.
Kudlow called the UK government’s attitude toward Huawei in particular “sub-optimal”. Trump has spoken repeatedly this month with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, berating him in at least one phone call for refusing to ban Huawei gear.
‘Great allies’
“They have made some concessions about putting the lid on Huawei, but I’m an optimist, I believe we can work through it, they are our great allies,” Kudlow said.
The US alleges that the Chinese government will use equipment from the Shenzhen-based company to spy on nations that install it in their networks. Huawei has denied that the Chinese government controls the company or has access to its products. — Reported by Josh Wingrove, with assistance from Jennifer Jacobs, (c) 2020 Bloomberg LP
