Huawei will get payback for 5G

© iStock.

Huawei, hit hard by US sanctions, intends to make money out of 5G even if it can’t sell its phones everywhere. The Chinese company has thousands of patents relating to 5G technology, the most of any company worldwide. About 20% of these patents are essential to the 5G standard, which ensures interoperability between different networks. “Huawei has been the largest technical contributor to 5G standards,” said Jason Ding, Huawei’s head of intellectual property rights, in a statement. The company has been lax in collecting royalties from its patents, but that is going to change. It intends to charge up to US$2.50 per phone enabled for 5G, which is, in passing, slightly less than other manufacturers like Nokia and Ericsson, who also hold essential patents (SEPs). There are signs that Huawei will also dispute intellectual property more aggressively, as it seeks new revenue sources to offset the effect of the sanctions.

The United States accuses Huawei of posing a threat to national security, a claim highly contested by the company. In 2019, the manufacturer was placed on an American blacklist called the Entity List, which prevents US companies from selling certain technologies to Huawei. Last year, Washington took legal action to limit Huawei’s access to certain components. Countries such as Australia have also banned the use of Huawei-made 5G network equipment.

⇨ The Verge, Ian Carlos Campbell, “Huawei has a plan to get a bigger cut of 5G, even with its phone sales limited.”

2021-03-16