Published 9 hours agoHONG KONG (REUTERS) - Huawei Technologies Co said it has started making 5G base stations without US components and that total production of 5G base stations should more than double next year as more countries introduce the technology.
The company will start mass production of US component-free 5G base stations next month, founder and chief executive officer Ren Zhengfei told a forum on Thursday (Sept 26).
"We carried out the testing in August and September, and from October on, we will start scale production," Mr Ren said, adding that initially it would begin making 5,000 US component-free 5G base stations a month.
Annual production next year is expected to hit 1.5 million units, compared with 600,000 estimated for this year which includes those made with US components and those without.
The world's largest telecoms gear maker has been on a United States trade blacklist since May over concerns its equipment could be used by Beijing to spy. Huawei has repeatedly denied such allegations but has taken steps to minimise the impact.
The sanctions have resulted in the loss of access to key technologies and the latest version of its Mate 30 flagship phone, for example, will not come with Google Mobile Services.
Mr Will Zhang, Huawei's president of corporate strategy, told Reuters the performance of the US-free base stations was "no worse" and the company "has had positive surprises". He declined to give details.
