Sprint and Softbank to abandon Huawei
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Sprint and Softbank to abandon Huawei

US operator Sprint and Japanese provider Softbank will not use equipment made by Chinese vendor Huawei.

As the US China security row rages on, the US chairman of house intelligence committee said last week that the two companies have agreed not to use Huawei equipment for Sprint’s cellphone network.

Sprint has also declared that it will replace any Huawei products used by Clearwire, which is subject to a takeover by the company.

Mike Rogers, a Michigan republican, further said the companies in the US had made assurances to the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (Cfius) which monitors security in other business deals.

Huawei has been attempting to build a bigger business in the US, and has been a long-term security concern for the government.

A critical report from the House Intelligence committee claimed that Huawei and fellow Chinese vendor ZTE were potential security threats, and could use existing infrastructure to send data back to China.

Masayoshi Son, Softbank’s chief executive has previously said: “In the US, I am aware of the sensitivity of the vendor issues which I respect.”

Dan Hesse, Sprint’s chief executive has also said: “Sprint is a big supplier to the US government, and that aside, I wouldn’t put in any equipment that would raise any security concerns.”

In February this year, Capacity reported exclusively that Hibernia Networks had halted all work on the Hibernia Express cable because of the US China security row.

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