US Attorney General William Barr urged the United States and its allies to consider purchasing a controlling stake in Nokia and/or Ericsson to give the world an option other than Chinese telecom giant Huawei to upgrade existing IT networks to 5G
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2020) US Attorney General William Barr urged the United States and its allies to consider purchasing a controlling stake in Nokia and/or Ericsson to give the world an option other than Chinese telecom giant Huawei to upgrade existing IT networks to 5G.
"Putting our large market and financial muscle behind one or both of these firms would make it a more formidable competitor and eliminate concerns over its staying power," Barr told guests at a Justice Department conference on Chinese spying and technology theft on Thursday.
Barr cited proposals that the United States align itself with Nokia and Ericsson through US ownership of a controlling stake, either directly or through a consortium of private American and allied companies, to illustrate his suggestion.
Huawei has already captured 40 percent of the market for equipment needed to convert existing 4G networks to 5G, giving Chinese intelligence backdoor access wherever Huawei equipment is present, Barr said.
But, he added that the threat goes beyond immediate security concerns because 5G will spawn the creation of command-and-control capabilities for industrial equipment across a wide range of industries such as such as transportation, energy, finance, healthcare, agriculture and heavy construction.
"The question is whether... the United States and our allies can mount sufficient competition to Huawei to retain and capture enough market share to sustain the kind of long-term and robust competitive position necessary to avoid surrendering dominance to the Chinese," Barr said.
China's principal competitors are the Finish firm Nokia with a 17 percent share, and the Swedish firm Ericsson with a 14 percent share, according to Barr.
