THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said the US trade ban that affected Huawei will have “little” effect on the Philippine telecommunications industry, as Filipino telcos are expected to diversify their equipment suppliers moving forward.
In a statement, the agency said the executive order of US President Donald J. Trump that prohibited US companies from engaging in trade with a “foreign adversary,” will have “little impact on the Philippine telecommunications industry,” whose players have been doing business with for over the past decade.
“The local telcos have made pronouncements that they will diversify in their present and future procurements of equipment to make their networks more robust and future proof,” the statement read.
For their 5G initiatives, both Globe Telecom Inc. and PLDT Inc. have taken Huawei as one of their equipment suppliers. However, both have also tapped other foreign tech companies such as Nokia and Ericsson for the same program.
Despite the trade ban that may potentially cause a huge dent on Huawei’s business, Globe President Ernest L. Cu said his group is still sticking with Huawei as its major provider of equipment, given that a large number of its existing infrastructure has been supplied by Huawei.
“I believe on the network side Huawei is pretty much independent when it comes to cell-site equipment,” he said. “They give us the assurance that it will continue.”
Cu added his group’s plans for 5G development is not affected by the trade ban.
The US government has repeatedly raised security concerns on Chinese telco equipment. But the DICT believes Huawei does not pose a cyber-security threat for the Philippines.
“On matters of cyber security, the incumbent telcos are to this day still strictly monitoring their network and up to now, there was no incident of a national security breach from their respective network predominantly using Huawei equipment,” the agency said.
It added the government “will continue to require local telecommunication companies to monitor their networks through world-class cyber-security audit teams and assure the government their respective network will not be compromised or they may suffer losing their license to operate.”
The same requirement will be imposed on the incoming third telco.