Mainstream: No past, present, or future connections to Huawei
In light of recent controversy, Mainstream Fiber Networks will continue not to work with technologies electronics company Huawei. We want to assure our customers that we have nothing to do with the company or any of their enterprises. As a growing business, Mainstream works independently to provide fiber internet service to rural communities across the state of Indiana. We take pride in connecting our neighbors with fiber optic-internet and other services. What Mainstream wants is to provide the technological infrastructure that will socially and economically benefit your county, which takes us building and maintaining an honest and trusting relationship with the community. This is one of many reasons why we choose to do business with credible suppliers.
Who is Huawei?
Huawei is a China-based multinational technology and consumer electronics company. Their products and services are split into three major areas: telecom carrier networks, enterprise businesses, and devices. They have partnerships and customers in many nations, including the United States. The international technologies supplier has worked with a number of notable U.S. companies. Most of these companies have had ethical or legal problems with Huawei in years past.
Past criticisms and lawsuits against Huawei
For almost two decades, Huawei has been hit with a number of criticisms and lawsuits. The following examples show a consistent pattern of unethical practices involving Huawei and partnering companies and customer businesses.
In 2003, American multinational technology conglomerate Cisco Systems filed a patent lawsuit, claiming Huawei was guilty of theft of Cisco’s IP.₁
In 2004, A Huawei employee was accused, and later dismissed, for being caught diagramming and photographing circuit boards from a competitor’s booth after-hours at a SuperComm trade show.₂
In 2010, Lemko, Corporation, a re-seller company to Huawei, was hit with an initial lawsuit from Motorola regarding stolen confidential proprietary trade secrets by Lemko, who in-turn sold Huawei the stolen information.₃
In 2012, The U.S. House Intelligence Committee labelled Huawei a national security threat and ushered U.S. companies not to work with them or buy their products.₄
In 2014, T-Mobile filed a lawsuit alleging that during 2012 and 2013, two Huawei employees snuck in to the Bellevue, Washington headquarters and stole parts of T-Mobile’s smartphone testing robot. ₅
In 2017, U.S. start-up company Ahkan Semiconductor sent some diamond glass samples to Huawei’s San Diego laboratory with the mutual agreement that the company would not cut the glass in two, in order to avoid any reverse-engineering of the product. Huawei returned the glass, only for Ahkan Semiconductor to notice signs of the glass being broken into two and having fragments missing. ₆
U.S. Government takes action against Huawei
Recent controversy surrounding the China-based technologies company involves U.S. allegations over Huawei products containing backdoors, or hacker code implanting, for the use of Chinese Government espionage. In 2019, The U.S. placed Huawei and its affiliates onto a trade blacklist under the Export Administration Regulations order.₇
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