Telecoms: Huawei Quits Iran, Broadband Probe Continues 中国电信业三大热门事件
The telecoms world was buzzing over the weekend with a number of interesting news bits, including Huawei’s latest bid to win Western approval, a new wrinkle in an ongoing anti-monopoly probe in the broadband space, and the latest rumors of the imminent arrival of Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone 4S to China. Let’s start with Huawei, China’s telecoms superstar whose efforts to enter the US have been repeatedly thwarted by politicians worried that the company is just a spying arm of Beijing despite its steady stream of efforts to prove otherwise. In the latest of those efforts, Huawei has said it will voluntarily restrict its business in Iran, a regular nemesis of the US and other Western nations that suspect it is trying to develop atomic weapons. (English article) The US in particular is trying to punish Iran with economic sanctions to get it to halt its nuclear program; so in that light, this latest move by Huawei should earn it some goodwill by showing the company won’t deal with rogue nations like Iran. This kind of move should help diffuse at least some of the bad feelings towards it by US politicians, but I still believe the company won’t earn any major contracts in the US until 2013 at earliest, after next year’s presidential elections. Moving on to broadband, Chinese media are reporting that the NDRC, China’s state planner which is conducting an anti-monopoly investigation into China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) and China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), has rejected a plan by the former to lower prices and improve service in exchange for ending the probe. (Chinese article) The NDRC is instead calling for both telcos to negotiate a more holistic approach to addressing the issue, which looks like a smarter approach than letting the companies simply offer their own piecemeal solutions. I expect this conflict will get solved in the next few months through this kind of negotiation, to the benefit of Chinese consumers and detriment of the top and bottom lines of the 2 telcos. Last but not least, media are saying the iPhone 4S, now on sale for several months in most major markets, has finally won approval from China’s telecoms regulator. (Chinese article) If this news is true, I would expect to see Unicom offer the latest iPhone as soon as January with China Telecom to potentially follow soon thereafter with its first iPhone deal. (previous post)
Bottom line: Huawei’s pledge to limit its Iran activity will win it goodwill in its drive to enter the US, while the NDRC’s broadband anti-monopoly probe will probably reach a settlement in mid 2012.
Related postings 相关文章:
◙ US China Bashing Hits New High With Telecoms Probe 华为中兴应巧选时机应对调查
◙ China Telecom, Unicom Enter Contrition Mode 中国电信和中国联通悔过自新
◙ Unicom, China Telecom in iPhone 4S 中国电信有望领先推出iPhone 4S Race
