Huawei To Open R&D Centre In Bristol

Chinese networking equipment giant Huawei is set to open a new R&D centre in Bristol. The facility will focus on future technologies, software and hardware and will create 140 jobs by the end of the year.

The announcement was welcomed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who recently travelled to China to meet Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei.

“I am delighted that today Huawei are announcing a new R&D centre in the UK,” said Osborne. “The decision of the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker to innovate in Britain is testament to the outstanding quality of our highly skilled workforce and further evidence that our long term economic plan is working.”

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Huawei already has 15 offices and more than 900 employees in the UK, and operates another R&D Centre dedicated to optoelectronics in Ipswich. The new centre in Bristol will be focused on analog and digital chip design, as well as software development.

“The UK is forward-thinking, progressive, and fosters innovation. This creativity is a major asset to our R&D efforts and gives us the perfect platform to continue pioneering the new, ground-breaking technologies that are building the future,” said Guo Ping, rotating and acting CEO of Huawei.

“We are committed to working with our customers and partners in the UK to leverage our global presence and customer-centric approach to innovation, bringing value to the UK ICT industry and helping its products and technologies go global.”

In the last couple of years, Huawei has had to repeatedly deny claims that its gear helped China carry out cyber attacks against foreign enemies.

The fact that Zhengfei himself was an officer in the People’s Liberation Army, which allegedly employs whole divisions of professional hackers, certainly didn’t help the matter.

Security concerns have somewhat hindered the company’s progress in the US. In contrast, the UK seems to have embraced the Chinese manufacturer – BT uses Huawei kit to run the backbone of its telecoms infrastructure. EE, O2 and TalkTalk also buy a wide variety of hardware from Huawei.

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