Huawei has announced the appointment of Sir Michael Rake, former BT Group chairman, to the board of Huawei Technologies UK as a non-executive director. He has been an adviser to the company since start-2019. The company also warned that blocking its involvement in the 5G roll-out would harm the UK.
Huawei vice-president Victor Zhang said that the company was focused on keeping the country connected during the Covid-19 pandemic, working with Vodafone, BT, EE, Three and others to keep customers connected. Huawei has set up three new warehouses and is working to redistribute spare parts around the UK to ensure continuity of supply. He also said that the crisis has highlighted how many people, especially those in rural areas, have slow digital connections and that Huawei's objective was to deliver 'secure and resilient Gigabit broadband networks'.
Huawei added that it had built up a strong reputation over 20 years of business in the UK, and attacked the 'groundless criticism' about its participation in the 5G roll-out. Zhang criticised those continuing to attack the company without providing any evidence, and warned that disrupting the company's 5G involvement would do the UK 'a disservice'.
Zhang said that the UK had a history of working with the leaders in any field, whether they come from Europe, the US or China. He insisted that Huawei's 5G technology is among the most advanced in this field, and that it looked forward to continuing to being a key network technology partner in the UK once the pandemic was over.
