Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei. Image credit: Huawei
The founder and CEO of Huawei Ren Zhengfei has admitted that so far, no US firm has engaged with the Chinese firm over its offer to licence its 5G technology.
In September Zhengfei said he was willing to licence the firm’s 5G technology to an American firm to allay US national security concerns.
Earlier that same month Zhengfei had also offered full access to its 5G technology to Western firms, but so far it seems that no one has taken him up on his offer.
According to Reuters, Zhengfei on Wednesday said that Huawei is not yet directly engaged with any US company to license its 5G network technology.
That said, a Huawei executive did tell Reuters in October that the company was in early stage talks with some US telecoms companies about licensing its technology.
Huawei has essentially proposed a one-off fee in exchange for access to Huawei’s 5G patents, licenses, code and expertise.
“There are currently no US companies talking to us directly, because middlemen who have come to talk do not necessarily represent the big US companies, as this is a big and difficult introduction,” Zhengfei reportedly said in a conversation broadcast by the company.
“It is only when someone is willing to come and discuss this issue with us will we find an investment bank to help us find an intermediary to discuss the deal, contract and cooperation, but not yet,” he said.
Zhengfei also reportedly said that the company was coping well with the US blacklisting and Huawei was continuing to innovate without US support, even though he hoped the ban would not be a long-term issue.
Huawei is currently on the US entity list, having been placed there ever since President Trump signed an executive order in May.
In August US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the US government would extend a reprieve that allows US companies to trade with Huawei for another 90 days.
This week Secretary Ross promised the US government would issue licences for American companies to sell to China’s Huawei “very shortly”.
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