Bahrain’s Batelco has secured agreements with the Chinese vendor for the roll-out of the operator’s LTE networks in Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, all off the coast of the UK.
The deal – arranged through Batelco’s SURE subsidiary, which is active in the three islands – will see Huawei deploy LTE base stations and integrate equipment onto SURE’s existing GSM/HSPA infrastructure.
Shaikh Hamad bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Batelco chairman, said: “Huawei's technical expertise and their experience in implementing cutting-edge communications solutions will be invaluable attributes.”
The deal follows reports that the UK government was looking to further scrutinise Huawei’s technology, amid security concerns.
Huawei has supplied telecoms equipment to the UK since 2005 and has so far been open to the investigation of its products; last week the company’s video conferencing equipment was stripped for testing.
The UK has, until now, been a long-standing supporter of Huawei’s products, despite the US’s reservations about the company.
In October last year, John Suffolk, global cyber security officer at Huawei, said that governments and communications firms should work closer together in order create a healthy balance between privacy and national security.
"The more that governments, enterprises and technology vendors can detail common standards, understand their purpose and the positive difference they make and commit to their effective adoption… the more the world will begin to see a difference,” Suffolk said.
