Huawei Launches 5G Hardware For Cars With Stellar 39% Q1 Growth Despite US Barbs
Huawei is off to a good start in 2019, in terms of its overall business. The Chinese telecommunications company generated 179.7 billion Chinese Yuan (around $26.7 billion in US currency) in revenue during the first quarter, which represents a 39 percent year-over-year increase, resulting in an 8 percent jump in profits (slightly higher than last year).
Those figures are not terribly surprising, since Huawei is the biggest smartphone maker in China. However, the company's financial success is noteworthy considering the war of words it finds itself in with the US government, amid repeated attempts to expand its business on US soil.
Just last week, for example, the US Central Intelligence Agency made the claim that Huawei is directly funded by the Chinese government. Specifically, the CIA says the CIA has received funding from China's National Security Commission, the People's Liberation Army, and the Chinese state intelligence network, further fueling concerns that it is acting on China's behalf to spy on the US.
Huawei has repeatedly denied spying for China, and in this instance, the company said it does not "comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources."
Objections to the claims aside, the National Defense Authorization Act prohibits government agencies from using products from Huawei and ZTE over spying concerns. In addition, Huawei has been unable to partner with any of the major US wireless carries to offer its products, and Best Buy stopped selling its phones around this time last year.
Despite Huawei's challenges in the US, the company appears to be doing well. It's also aggressively pursuing 5G technologies.
"2019 will be a year of large-scale deployment of 5G around the world, meaning that Huawei's Carrier Business Group has unprecedented opportunities for growth. By the end of March 2019, Huawei had signed 40 commercial contracts for 5G with leading global carriers, and had shipped more than 70,000 5G base stations to markets around the world," Huawei says.
In addition, Huawei launched what it claims is the first world's first 5G car module, the MH5000. It's based on the Balong 5000 5G chip that it introduced in January, and is supposed to help commercialize 5G connectivity for automobiles in the second half of this year.
"As an important communication item for future intelligent car transportation, this 5G car module will market the automotive industry to move towards the 5G era," Huawei said.
Last month, Huawei filed a lawsuit over the US government over a product ban, claiming that the real issue is not related to spying concerns, but the company's efforts in 5G. More recently, Huawei had some strong words on the subject, telling the Financial Times that "the US government has a loser's attitude" and wants to "smear" the company "because they can't compete with us."
