Should we be scared of Chinese telecoms? Definitely yes, according U.S. House Intelligence Committee Report, which has declared Huawei and ZTE national security risks. Yikes! More »
Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE are under fire from US lawmakers, with the House Intelligence Committee branding the two companies as potential espionage weakspots for the Chinese government. “China has the means, opportunity, and motive to use telecommunications companies for malicious purposes” the bipartisan-authored report warns, recommending that companies in the US should avoid using either Huawei or ZTE hardware, and that mergers and acquisitions by the firms should be blocked by US regulators. Unsurprisingly, the accusations have been met with outrage from the rising Chinese tech companies.
Huawei and ZTE have each denied being financed by the Chinese government or military, or indeed providing information about international customers to intelligence agencies in their home country. Speaking on behalf of Huawei, spokesperson William Plummer described the accusations as “baseless” and said that the company “has a well-demonstrated track record of responsibly adhering to local laws and regulations in the markets in which it does business.”
“ZTE equipment is safe” director of global public affairs David Dai Shu said of the claims, pointing out that “ZTE has set an unprecedented standard for cooperation by any Chinese company with a congressional investigation.”
Work on the inquiry began in November 2011, amid concerns that Huawei and ZTE hardware contained backdoor access points for information extraction that could be used by the Chinese government. Evidence supporting that was sourced from former company employees, apparently, though the report does not include specific accusations. An annex to the report which, unlike the main summary itself, will be kept confidential, supposedly includes more substantiative information.
The Chinese government too has reacted strongly, with a spokesperson arguing that companies from the country make their business decisions based on sound economic practice. “The investments they make in the US show the win-win aspect of China-US trade relations” foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said earlier today. “We hope that the US Congress can reject bias, respect the facts and do more to promote China-US economic relations, rather than the opposite.”
“The investigation concludes that the risks associated with Huawei’s and ZTE’s provision of equipment to US critical infrastructure could undermine core US national-security interests” the committee wrote, unconvinced by Huawei and ZTE’s insistence that, should the government in China demand access to equipment made by the firms, they would be bound by US rather than Chinese laws.
The House Intelligence Committee is unable to pass laws or enact policy change on its own, but intends to submit the report to the Department of Homeland Security as well as the Justice Department.
Huawei and ZTE “could undermine US national security” say lawmakers is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We have seen our fair share of handsets from Chinese phone manufacturers Huawei and ZTE (granted, they make more than just phones but that’s besides the point at the moment) in the past, but it seems that not all is a bed of roses with them when it comes to relations in the US. The House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee are about to release a report which specifically requested that both Chinese telecoms kit-makers to be banned from any mergers and acquisitions in the US, as well as to be blocked from carrying out business deals with government and private firms in the US.
The reason? Both Huawei and ZTE posed a security threat. While we do not see their names plastered everywhere, Huawei actually holds the position of being the second-largest telecoms equipment vendor in the world, right behind Ericsson, with ZTE taking fifth spot. What do you think of this recommendation? Will companies in the US take heed of this and avoid all business transactions with them, if it were possible?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Branded handset vendors reducing orders to component suppliers, ClassCo sues Apple, HTC, RIM, Samsung and others for patent infringement,
A Congress committee will today publish the results of an 11-month investigation into ZTE and Huawei and the alleged risks these companies pose to US national security. Somehow, Reuters has already gotten hold of a draft of the report and, judging from the conclusions that have now been made public, it’s anything but diplomatic. The document accuses both Chinese manufacturers of refusing to cooperate with the US’s investigation, of failing to properly explain their ties with the Chinese government, and – at least in the case of Huawei — of being the subject of “credible allegations” of “bribery, corruption, discriminatory behavior and copyright infringement.” Many details seem to have been reserved for a longer, classified version of the report, but the Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Mike Rogers, has already appeared on 60 Minutes to tell Americans to “find another vendor” rather than do business with either company – a stance that could potentially affect their handset sales as well as their telecoms infrastructure operations.
In response, ZTE has complained that it “should not have been the focus of this investigation to the exclusion of the much larger Western vendors” and says it “profoundly disagrees” with the findings. A Huawei spokesman has described the Congress report as a “baseless” attack that will “recklessly threaten American jobs and innovation.” Indeed, it published the same arguments in greater depth three weeks ago, when it was clearly anticipating (and no doubt dreading) today’s headlines.
Filed under: Cellphones
Huawei and ZTE ‘cannot be trusted’ in the US, says Congress report originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dolby spinoff Via Licensing has shone a signal into the night sky and assembled some of the world’s biggest telecoms players to form a patent supergroup. AT&T, NTT DoCoMo and Telefonica are some of the names that’ll pool their standards-essential LTE patents to prevent getting embroiled in litigation over FRAND licensing. While there are some notable holdouts to the team, we suggest company president Roger Ross coax them over by hiring Michael McCuistion to write them a rockin’ theme song.
Continue reading Via Licensing assembles an LTE supergroup to share standards-essential patents
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Via Licensing assembles an LTE supergroup to share standards-essential patents originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 01:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Most Windows Phone enthusiasts have their sights set on large trophy-like targets, but if you have more modest goals in mind, then US Cellular’s latest acquisition might be just what the doctor ordered. If the device pictured above looks familiar, that’s because it should. Rebranded as the Render, most of you know this handset as the ZTE Orbit, an entry-level device that features a 4-inch 800 x 480 display, a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, a 5-megapixel camera and Windows Phone 7.5 Tango. So, if US Cellular is your wireless carrier of choice and you’re seriously crushing on Windows Phone, the ZTE Render will run you $80 after a $100 mail-in rebate.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
US Cellular expands its Windows Phone catalog with the ZTE Render for $80 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Sep 2012 12:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
ZTE has unveiled a new smartphone running the Android 4.0 operating system that will be exclusively available at Cricket Wireless. The new smartphone is called the ZTE Engage and will be available on Cricket Wireless starting October 2. The smartphone promises to be a full-featured multimedia device running Android 4.0 and sporting a four-inch capacitive touchscreen.
The smartphone uses a 1.4 GHz processor and has an eight-megapixel camera on the back with LED flash. The smartphone offers all the features that people know love with Android 4.0 such as customizable home screens and Swype predictive text. The smartphone supports the Muve Music service from Cricket Wireless.
The service allows subscribers to access unlimited downloads of their favorite music along with access to exclusive artist commentary and video. The 1.4 GHz processor I mentioned is a QUALCOMM MSM8655T Scorpion. Along with that eight-megapixel rear camera, the smartphone also has a VGA resolution front camera for videoconferencing.
Storage on the device is via a 4 GB Muve Music microSD card that is included. The microSD card is removable, and the phone supports up to 32 GB of storage. The device has integrated Bluetooth, and its battery has 1900 mAh of power. The smartphone will sell for $249.99 with contract-free plants starting at $50 monthly and going up to $70 monthly.
ZTE Engage to be a Cricket Wireless exclusive is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We recently caught first sight of the ZTE Engage at a press event in New York, but while Cricket was more than happy to let us play with its latest smartphone, the carrier stopped short of providing us with its pricing or arrival date. All of that changed this afternoon, as we now know that the ZTE Engage will become available on October 2nd with a no-contract price of $250. As a quick refresher, the handset will feature a near-stock Android 4.0 environment and a Snapdragon S2 SoC with a CPU that’s clocked at 1.4GHz. Other relevant specs include a 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) TFT-LCD display, an 8-megapixel rear camera with a VGA front-facing counterpart and a 1,900mAh battery. For complete details, you’ll find the full PR right after the break.
Continue reading ZTE Engage cleared to land at Cricket on October 2nd for $250
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
ZTE Engage cleared to land at Cricket on October 2nd for $250 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Intel just outed its new Atom SoC, and at its tablet event in San Francisco today, the company had a whole slew of slates packing the Clover Trail silicon on hand. Dell’s Latitude 10, the ASUS Tablet 810, Acer’s Iconia W510 and W700, Lenovo’s ThinkPad 2, the HP Envy x2 and Samsung’s Series 5 were all there. However, it was the handsome slice of Windows 8 from ZTE that really caught our attention. Called the V98, it has a 10.1-inch, 1366 x 768 LCD on top of an aluminum chassis with a beveled edge similar to what you’d find on a white iPhone 5. Beneath that handsome exterior is the aforementioned Intel Z2760 chipset, 64GB of ROM, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (plus a microSD slot if you need more digital space). There’s 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, tri-band UMTS and quad-band GSM radios, plus NFC and LTE can be had as options. It’s got an accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensors, a magnetometer and a gyro, too. An 8-megapixel camera is stuck in the back, while a 2-megapixel shooter resides round front. ZTE managed to stuff all that and a 7,000mAh battery inside a svelte 8.9mm-thin package.
We got to spend a little bit of time with a prototype ZTE model, and found the hardware to be solid for a hand-built unit. Its aluminum chassis makes for quite a rigid device in hand, and the machined and polished bevel gives the V98 a very high-end look. The chromed plastic volume rocker, power button and screen orientation lock switch nestled in the plastic radio reception strip at the top of the device are decidedly less luxurious, however — the travel of each was shallow, and the finish on the plastic appeared a bit cheap to our eyes. That said, the rotating magnetic aluminum door that reveals the SD card and SIM slots is slick — far easier to open and close than the plastic port covers found on most other slates. There’s also a 30-pin docking port on the bottom edge of the tablet, but ZTE informed us it’d be another month or so before the dock is ready for public consumption. Unfortunately, the V98 won’t be available for purchase until Q1 of next year, but you can see if its worth waiting for in our gallery of shots below.
Gallery: ZTE V98 Windows 8 tablet hands-on
Filed under: Tablets
ZTE shows off new V98 Windows 8 slate, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Huawei’s boss must have been a Boy Scout, since he’s taken its “be prepared’ motto deeply to his heart. CEO Wan Biao has told Reuters that his company is working on its own mobile OS just in case its partners “won’t let us use their system[s] one day.” We don’t expect to ever see the software, but given the fractious nature of the business, it’s more likely to be a barbed hint at Google and Microsoft to keep sending flowers and chocolates to Shenzhen. That said, given that local rival ZTE is building phones with Firefox’s OS, we’d politely suggest that it rescues another beloved OS from the clutches of HP’s indifference.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile
Huawei’s building its own mobile operating system ‘just in case’ there’s trouble ahead originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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