The New Zealand operator is said to have selected Huawei over its long-standing technology partner Alcatel-Lucent.
The move will strengthen Huawei’s presence in the New Zealand, where Telecom New Zealand’s rival operators 2degrees and Vodafone use the Chinese company’s technology for their respective mobile and fixed-line networks.
This is a strong contrast to neighbouring Australia, where Huawei was banned from participating in a tender to build the country’s National Broadband Network (NBN) amid ongoing cyber security concerns.
The US has also expressed concerns about the Chinese technology provider, and earlier this year Capacity reported that work on Hibernia Networks $300 million transatlantic cable had been halted after becoming embroiled in mounting tension between the US and China over cyber security.
The decision by Telecom New Zealand to select Huawei indicates that many governments do not share the same security concerns about the company. The vendor posted a 32% net profit in 2012 and has increased sales and gained market share in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Telecom New Zealand expects to go live with its 4G network in October of this year, with further plans to roll out LTE to half of its nationwide network in 2014. It will initially launch services in the 1800MHz band and is also thought to be considering bidding for 700MHz spectrum in the nation’s upcoming spectrum auction later this year.
