T-Mobile chief gives Congress pledge not to use Huawei gear

Bloomberg

T-Mobile US Inc. Chief Executive Officer John Legere says his company doesn’t use equipment from Huawei Technologies Co., and won’t after buying Sprint Corp. to form a bigger No. 3 in the US wireless market.
“Let me be clear —we do not use Huawei or ZTE network equipment in any area of our network. Period. And we will never use it in our 5G network,” Legere said in written testimony prepared for a hearing on Wednesday before the House communications subcommittee. The statement is in response to critics who’ve raised the issue of the Chinese equipment maker as a risk to national security to build opposition to the proposed $26.5 billion merger.
Sprint parent SoftBank Group Corp. has “significant ties” to Huawei, as does T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom AG, according to Carri Bennet, general counsel for the Rural Wireless Association that represents smaller competitors to the merging parties. Huawei supplies Deutsche Telekom, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Allowing a Japanese-influenced company and German-influenced company to merge when both have significant 5G ties to Huawei appears to run counter to US national security concerns,” Bennet said in testimony submitted for the hearing. Lawmakers and the administration of President Donald Trump say Huawei poses a potential security threat, if only because it can’t buck orders from China’s government, and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo this week urged Europeans to shun the Shenzhen-based company.
Huawei says it’s privately held, doesn’t take orders from the Beijing government, and wouldn’t do so because that would ruin its business that relies on income worldwide.
The Federal Communications Commission is considering whether to effectively ban Huawei from US networks; already the company’s gear is effectively limited to small providers attracted by low prices. Still, critics bring up Huawei and perils that are likewise ascribed to ZTE Corp., another Chinese gear maker.