VietNamNet Bridge – Telecom groups, which have been criticized for using telecom equipment provided by Chinese Huawei and ZTE, explain that the current bidding mechanism forces them to choose Chinese suppliers.

What is expected of Huawei, ZTE in Vietnam?

The most important reason which prompts Vietnamese telcos to choose Chinese products when developing their networks is that the products are always surprisingly cheap. Meanwhile, under the current bidding mechanism, those, who offer the lowest prices for bidding packages, would be chosen as the contractors for the projects.

“We have to choose Huawei’s or ZTE’s products. If we don’t, we will violate the current bidding mechanism, which stipulates that the contractors to be chosen must be the ones who offer the lowest prices,” manager of a telco said.

In 1998, Huawei established its representative office in Vietnam, while Huawei Vietnam Technology Company Ltd was officially set up in 2008. The Chinese high technology group has affirmed that the equipments and technology solutions provided by Huawei are safe and stable, which have not caused any big troubles threatening the network security in Vietnam.

However, the question about the network security still has been raised by Vietnamese after the US, Canada and India stated they have doubts about the products provided by the two Chinese groups, advising their companies not to use the groups’ products any more.

Before Huawei and ZTE entered the Vietnamese market, domestic telecom networks mostly used the products made by G7 countries for their network infrastructure development, including Motorola, Siemens, or Ericssons.

However, the above said giants later could not compete with the Chinese colleagues in terms of prices, since the Chinese always offered competitive prices, just equal to 40-50 percent of the prices offered by the European companies.

“We cannot refuse Chinese contractors, who always offered lowest prices, because we are state owned enterprises and we have to follow the current bidding regulations,” a director said.

There has been no report about the number of telecom equipments provided by Huawei and ZTE to Vietnam so far, and no one knows for sure how many percent of the equipments in use are sourced from the two manufacturers.

Informal sources believe that the proportions could be up to 70 or 80 percent. However, deputy director of a big mobile network has affirmed that the proportion must not be higher than 40 or 50 percent.

He explained that in developing telecom networks, switching systems are considered the most important item. Meanwhile, Vietnamese telcos do not use made-in-China switching systems.

“Since this is a very important item, telcos only use the products made by developed countries,” he said.

He went on to say that the products provided by Huawei and ZTE are mostly base transreceiver stations BTS. Therefore, the security problem, if occurring, would not be too serious.

Better safe than sorry

Not only providing equipment for network infrastructure, Huawei and ZTE have also been cooperating with telcos to launch terminal devices into the markets, such as USB 3G, low cost phone sets, wifi modems.

Viettel, a Vietnamese mobile network operator, has stated that it now can make USB 3G. However, a technology expert believes that Viettel still has to import chips; one of the most important parts for USB 3G. Therefore, it’s still too early to say that Viettel’s products are 100 percent safe.

Telcos have admitted that though there has been no proof showing that Chinese products are not safe, it would be better safe than sorry. At first look, Chinese products have satisfactory quality and low prices. However, no one can be sure about the security.

TBKTVN