THE WRAP: Huawei barred from NBN, Telenor sues India

It was the week that saw Huawei banned from Australia’s NBN, as Telenor threatened to sue India and a consortium revealed environmentally friendly FTTH technology.

 

The week got off to a bad start for Chinese telecoms vendor Huawei Technologies, which was reportedly excluded from tendering for projects rolling out Australia's national broadband network (NBN).

 

According to The Australian Financial Review, the government attorney-general's office banned Huawei from participating in NBN contracts due to security concerns. Huawei has hinted that it may seek intervention by the Chinese government if the ban is not lifted.

 

Huawei has faced similar political worries in the US, which may have been a factor in news this week that Symantec plans to sell its 49% stake in Huawei Symantec back to Huawei for $530 million.

 

Symantec CEO Enrique Salem said the company had “achieved the objectives we set four years ago” and is exiting with a good ROI. But the New York Times reports that Symantec was concerned the JV could prevent it from gaining access to classified US government information about cyberthreats.

 

Rival vendor ZTE had a rough weekend as well after reports surfaced that it had provided the Iranian government with a telephony and internet surveillance system under a $130 million contract awarded in December 2010. ZTE said it “provided standard communications and network solutions to Iran on a small scale”, and that it hasn’t sought any new customers in the country since last year.

 

Also, ZTE reported a 36.6% decline in 2011 net profit as heavy R&D and marketing spending outweighed a 23.4% gain in revenue.