Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor is doing big business with the rapidly growing Chinese firm Huawei, and that’s raised concerns the Chinese firm will use the job for spying. Nonsense, say those involved in the project.
Huawei is becoming a giant itself in the field of telecommunications, and making inroads in both Sweden and Norway, reports newspaper Aftenposten. It’s developing network equipment for base stations for mobile telephone communications, considered the brains behind what makes mobile phones work.
Now Huawei is working closely with Telenor to build base stations in Norway, and newspaper VG has reported on concerns that the work can lead to spying. That’s because Huawei reportedly has ties to the Chinese defense department.
Anders Ljunggren, the Swedish boss for Huawei Norden, claims there’s no reason to fear spying.
“Telenor can install all it wants of security measures in the network,” Ljunggren told Aftenposten. “They are very precise about such things.”
He also claims that Huawei isn’t owned by the Chinese government but by its employees, “and we don’t receive state support.”
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