MANILA, Philippines – Globe CEO Ernest Cu, in a post-earnings interview with Bloomberg TV, expressed confidence in controversy-embroiled Huawei, a Globe equipment partner since 2010.

Asked if he believes that security concerns are overblown, Cu answered, “to a certain degree, yes.”

Cu doesn’t touch on specific Huawei concerns such as the Chinese government reportedly being able to force private companies to hand over data or US claims of tech thievery. Instead, Cu illustrates their measures to ensure the integrity of their network. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei denied spying for China in a January interview. 

“We’ve been faced with this issue before in previous administrations in the Philippines. We’ve been asked to do very extensive sets of reviews of our networks with regard to backdoors and trojan horses, and stuff like that. So we took some independent consultancy from UK-based companies. We even had an Israeli company… And they gave it a clean bill of health,” Cu said. 

“As we’ve said many times, [Huawei] supplies the equipment but we run the network – and so, what’s attached to our network and what goes through it.”

Cu mentions that they have “very extensive cybersecurity operations as well” that’s “probably one of the most advanced in the Philippines, if not Southeast Asia.”

In addition to Huawei, Globe’s equipment partners are Nokia and Wuhan FiberHome. 

Globe said that plans to have 5G services ready by the second quarter of this year will push through and will not be delayed by the current pushback against Huawei by the US, some European countries, Australia, and Japan.

“Yes, at this point in time, yes,” Cu answers whether he trusts Huawei.

Rival telco Smart also has a partnership with Huawei, in addition to an Ericsson partnership. We have asked for their statement on Huawei concerns. 

Prospective 3rd telco Mislatel has an even bigger Chinese connection. China Telecom, a member of the Mislatel consortium, is state-owned. – Rappler.com