NBN door cracks open for Huawei

Shadow communications minister Malcolm Turnbull, fresh off the release of the Coalition NBN policy yesterday, has cracked open the door for the possible participation of Chinese telcos in the NBN.

Speaking at the CommsDay Summit in Sydney this morning, Turnbull said there was no question the Chinese, and in particular ascendant Chinese telecoms manufacturer Huawei, had been locked out of the Labor government’s NBN plans.

But he said he remained unclear as to the real reasons. 

“We are not privy to the sort of security advice the government would have received from ASIO,” Turnbull told the packed house. “Oppositions only get cursory briefings.”

However, he intimated the Coalition would be willing to revisit the participation of Chinese telecoms companies pending national security advice.

A Huawei spokesperson contacted by CRN said Turnbull’s statement was a reiteration of a position he took last year, indicating the opposition would consider giving Huawei access to the NBN.

Turnbull's comments come as the prime minister Julia Gillard nears the end of a high-level diplomatic tour of China, reports of which point to a strengthening of ties between Australia and China.

Its biggest technology company, Huawei, is involved in national broadband efforts in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, however, it was barred from bidding for the NBN because of national security concerns. In particular there were worries about the company’s links to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the potential for technical back-doors in Chinese-made telecoms equipment, although the government gave little information as to how it reached its decision.

In October last year Huawei called for the formation of an independent cyber-testing facility which would thoroughly vet communications technology from all suppliers before being deployed into sensitive environments in Australia.

It would be modelled on an existing faciltiy built by Huawei in the UK as a condition of being granted contracts for that country's NBN equivalent. 

The Australian government would not say whether such a facility in Australia would lead to it reversing the NBN ban imposed on Huawei.

One of the largest and fastest growing technology companies in the world, Shenzen-based Huawei this week released its financial results, reporting an almost 25 percent increase in net profit in 2012 
to $2.4 billion. The company's carrier equipment business performed best, followed by its consumer division while the enterprise business was yet to fire outside of China, making up less than 7 percent of carrier sales. 

Cargo cult

During his briefing, Turnbull also slammed what he termed as a “cargo-cult” view of Labor’s NBN plans. He said there were sections of the telco industry, in particular retail service providers, who were happy for any amount of taxpayer money to be spent given they didn’t have to put up any capital of their own.

“Stephen Conroy is trying to recreate the PMG,” Turnbull said. “We want to re-open the market to competition. (The PMG, or Postmaster General's Office, was the original government telecoms monopoly).

He was particularly scathing about what he termed as Labor’s overlooking of key rural and regional telecommunications issues, and in particular mobile phone reception and blackspots.

“When you go into these communities, it’s mobile phones they’re complaining about, not broadband,” he said.

Turnbull said the Coalition would work to make sure the fixed wireless being rolled out in rural and regional areas would also work towards fixing mobile phone reception.