Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. has given small U.S. carriers providing telephone and wireless service a much-needed equipment option in a narrowing field — despite past U.S. efforts to shut it out, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to the Journal, Union Wireless of Mountain View, Wyoming — with 50,000 customers in five Western states — turned to Huawei four years ago after its previous equipment vendor fell behind schedule on a critical network upgrade.
Huawei "worries about getting the problem fixed first and then worries about getting paid," Union Wireless' customer relations officer Brian Woody told the Journal. "We've had many vendors over the years. Huawei has treated us better than anybody."
Yet Huawei appeared shut out of the United States six years ago after congressional investigators determined its equipment could be used for spying or crippling the U.S. telecommunications network, the Journal reported.
Their recommendations came just as Huawei was gaining traction in America, the Journal reported; there is no law preventing a U.S. company from partnering with Huawei.
Nevertheless, Huawei has now positioned itself to dominate future global telecom networks, the Journal reported — becoming stiff competition to Nokia Corp. of Finland and Sweden's Ericsson AB.
Its dominance comes just as big U.S. carriers are expected to invest about $275 billion over seven years to deploy fifth generation, or 5G, networks that can carry huge amounts of data for high-quality mobile video and self-driving cars, the Journal reported.
But Huawei's dominance is again stoking fears among Washington security and intelligence experts, who worry major U.S. carriers might be tempted to turn to the Chinese giant.
Last month, members of the Senate and House intelligence committees sent a letter asking the Federal Communications Commission to review any relationship with Huawei and requested the FCC get briefed on the security concerns raised in 2012.
The pressure might have already had an impact. Huawei planned to announce Tuesday at a Las Vegas trade show it had struck an agreement to sell its smartphones through AT&T Inc. Instead, say people familiar with the matter, AT&T walked away from the deal.
Both AT&T and Huawei declined to comment, the Journal reported.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.