Huawei marks 20 years of UK business with newspaper ad campaign

Ad campaign comes after launch of new NCSC security review

Huawei has launched a campaign across newspapers and the internet to mark 20 years of business in the UK.

The campaign includes an open letter to the public in which the vendor says it is “as committed as ever” to providing “the best equipment” for 5G and full-fibre broadband rollout.

The ad campaign after the start of a new security review into Huawei by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) at the end of last month.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Huawei vice president Victor Zhang warned of the damage to the UK economy if it left Huawei out of its networks.

“We need to realise how to manage and mitigate the risk from security rather than overestimate the risk of security and forget the economic impact,” he said.

Zhang also refuted suggestions that Huawei was a state-owned company, affirming its private status and comparing it to UK retailer John Lewis.

In January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson limited Huawei’s involvement in UK 5G networks at 35 per cent, and prohibited it from having access to core infrastructure.

However, it was recently reported that Johnson instructed officials to draft plans that would see Huawei’s involvement in infrastructure reduced to zero by 2023.

The Sun has also reported that government officials are holding talks with Samsung this week in an attempt to avoid over-reliance on Huawei. The government has already held talks with NEC, and invited Ericsson, Nokia and others to talks.