Tags:WIMAX | 3G | LTE | UWB | CDMA | GSM

Despite several Taiwan-based networking equipment vendors having secured validations from Huawei Technologies, they are likely to be disappointed by the China vendor''s decision to hold its production in-house, according to sources at partner companies of Huawei.

Driven by concerns of autonomy of production and costs, Huawei is said to prefer producing consumer side WiMAX equipment on its own, rather than outsourcing to its Taiwan partners as seen in the past, the sources said. The company plans to introduce chip solutions from HiSilicon Technologies, a Huawei established subsidiary, with corresponding products to be available in 2009, the sources detailed.

Currently Huawei has all its WiMAX equipment production handled by about 10 Taiwan subcontractors including Alpha Networks, Gemtek Technology, Quanta Computer and Zyxel Communications, with all of these companies having already secured interoperability testing (IOT) validations from Huawei, the sources noted.

Huawei is also aggressively deploying into the 3G business. In addition to WiMAX, the company is also developing technologies such as long-term evolution (LTE) and ultra-wideband (UWB). The company has dedicated a 1,200 strong R&D team to the segment, spread across centers located in China, India, Sweden and the US. The company also holds about 100 Intellectual Property rights for WiMAX-related technology, making its library of WiMAX-related rights the largest among the top-10 WiMAX vendors.

In related news, the sources added in saying that Huawei has also started development of WiMAX handsets, with the upcoming handsets possibly to support CDMA/WiMAX, GSM/WiMAX and 3G/WiMAX standards. Volume production of the handsets is slated for the first half of 2009. Taiwan OEMs are aggressively soliciting orders from Huawei, with Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) and Foxlink holding the strongest bidding power.



Source:digitimes