Huawei offers to share source code

Huawei ChinaIn the latest attempt by the Chinese company to persuade the Indian government that its gear does not pose a security threat, Huawei Technologies has offered to reveal the source code for its telecommunications systems. Another Chinese telecom equipment company, Huawei and ZTE, say dozens of contracts allotted to them by phone firms have not been approved since February 18 however the Center maintains there is no blanket ban on the import of telecom equipment and networks from China.

The company said in an email reply to questions from ET “Huawei is also open to any third party audit of our telecommunications solutions and facilities in India or any other part of the world. The misconception regarding the R&D centre restricting Indian employees to certain floors is false. Huawei employs over 2,000 Indian engineers and just 30 Chinese

engineers in the R&D centre in Bangalore, which includes three buildings with a total of nine floors. In all the three buildings, all employees have access to all floors”. D K Ghosh of ZTE India said after the meeting “We had a positive meeting. Talks are going on. We have appealed to the government. We have put forward our thoughts. Let’s see (what happens).”

Zhang Yan, who met Pillai, is understood to have told the company representatives, told the company that the final decision would not be taken unless the Indian agencies are fully satisfied with the company’s response. The issue came to limelight last week when Jairam Ramesh in Beijing reportedly said that though the matter was being discussed at different levels within the government in the light of serious security concerns and also said that the home ministry’s decision about restrictions on allowing the import and installation of equipment from Chinese firms on the ground that it could pose a security risk in the highly sensitive telecom sector.