AT&T’s top executive called on American allies Thursday to ban the use of Huawei Technologies equipment, days after a top executive at the Chinese telecommunication giant was arrested in Canada amid a U.S. probe into whether the company violated sanctions against Iran.
While the federal government has taken several steps to curb the influence of Huawei and fellow Chinese telecom firm ZTE Inc. — including banning the sales of devices from both companies on military bases — other countries around the world still utilize equipment from both companies.
“We need to get our allies with us on this,” AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said at a Business Roundtable event. “The idea that the United States can be this island and set global supply chains, those days are long-gone.”
Stephenson said any new U.S. trade deals should include provisions like a ban on Huawei products, but some American allies are already taking action.
After Canadian authorities arrested Wanzhou Meng — Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei — on Saturday at the behest of the U.S., British telecom giant BT Group said it would remove the firm’s equipment in both its 3G and 4G operations, as well as the new fifth-generation wireless network.
Australia and New Zealand also previously forbade the use of Huawei equipment in their respective 5G networks.
