Network Technology ‘Speed Dating’ Shows Huawei Forging Ahead Despite Washington Flak

"We are currently looking to develop partnerships in the areas of next generation ICT, including cloud computing, media technology, mobile broadband and data analytics,” says Huawei’s statement, posted online in notices for the event in the MarketLink program of CommNexus. Billed as taking part are the vice presidents of R&D and data centers and the directors of technology planning and architecture design in the company’s core network product line. The session will take place at the Palo Alto office of the Wilson Sonsini law firm, which will benefit from “a soft commercial” message and the opportunity to meet with about a dozen companies chosen from several times that many that applied, Moore said. A Wilson Sonsini marketing executive didn’t get back to us right away.

"The machinations in Washington related to Huawei do have an effect on our ability to do business, and we are devoting a lot of resources” to providing the company’s story to government officials and to communications-technology companies, Bill Plummer, Huawei North America’s vice president of external affairs, said Wednesday. Much of the resistance is “just lingering bullshit,” and “slowly but surely” the company is becoming “a credible and respected participant” in U.S. business and public policy, he said. “Business is business and politics is politics, and in the realm of business” Huawei is “well-respected and well-recognized and people want to work with us."

The MarketLink requirements that the company lists for “Mobile Broadband/Network” are “Network optimization/acceleration (including transmission, WAN speedup),” “Mobile Internet end-to-end security solution, end-to-end, mobile-to-mobile solution,” “HD video codec with high compression rate, mobile Internet video optimization,” “Real time streaming technology based on HTML 5,” “Location based services,” and “Mobile applications across various intelligent terminals.” The wording quirks are in the original.

In cloud computing, Huawei seeks technologies in “Cloud security, storage, management and orchestration,” “Distributed computing, file system, web framework,” “Server and I/O virtualization,” “Virtual desktop infrastructure,” “Software/Platform-as-a-Service offerings that run on EC2 and/or S3 infrastructure.” The company also wants media technologies: “High density/performance video encoder/transcoder, video quality enhancement,” “Audio/video compensation,” “Media file storage system” and “DRM/Watermarking.” Finally, Huawei calls for data analytics, including “Location based data mining, probe for data collection."

The program grew out of a successful one involving wireless infrastructure that CommNexus held for Huawei in December, Moore said. The company’s notice for the earlier session sought wireless IP network trouble-shooting technology; baseband “multi-core Architecture and implementation technology, DSP core technology, design and verification tools” and software technology; antenna, radio, power amplifier and other components; power management technology; and “LTE, MIMO, UMTS, GSM, higher capacity femto solutions.” Like other MarketLink programs, that one was in San Diego. CommNexus accommodated a request by Huawei, which has an office in Santa Clara, to hold next week’s event in Silicon Valley, Moore said. “They feel they'll get more appeal, more traction in the Valley."

Huawei has grown into the world’s second largest telecom vendor, after Ericsson, with $28 billion in 2010 sales and significant business with 45 of the world’s 50 largest carriers, Plummer said. Of its 110,000 employees, 1,500 are in the U.S. Seven of its 20 R&D centers are in North America and the regional flagship center is in Santa Clara, he said. Huawei invested $100 million in U.S. R&D last year, Plummer said.

The past few years, Huawei has run into opposition from lawmakers led by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and federal regulators have rejected acquisitions by the company and proposed business with Sprint. The company has been back in the news this week, with reports about Republican Gov. Rick Perry having recruited Huawei to Texas and about senators’ expressions of worries that the company supplied components for a sensitive supercomputer center at the University of Tennessee. Kyl’s office didn’t return a call seeking comment. “Cybersecurity concerns are real, and they are global, and they are agnostic to national borders and origins,” Plummer said.

CommNexus is a nonprofit that aims to attract technology business to the San Diego area, Moore said. It doesn’t track what may come of its matchmaking for equipment makers and service providers, he said. The organization’s website lists 28 board members, including John Roese, the senior vice president in charge of Huawei’s North American research and development, along with senior executives of Verizon Wireless, Cricket and several major hardware makers. The application deadline for the Huawei MarketLink program was extended, but Moore said he doesn’t know of any reluctance because of the security controversies to meet with the company. “We're really politically agnostic with regard to technology innovators,” he said.