Huawei tapped a former Nortel Networks executive to run its North American research and development, another indication that despite the regulatory hurdles the Chinese vendor faces in the United States, the company is not giving up on the market.
Former Nortel CTO John Roese will become the new senior vice president and general manager of Huawei North America R&D, and will be based in Santa Clara, Calif. Roese also worked at Broadcom and other technology companies in the past.
Although Huawei had $480 million in U.S. sales in 2009, the company has yet to secure any major deals with Tier 1 carriers. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that, due to security concerns from lawmakers, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) decided to block both Huawei and its smaller Chinese rival ZTE from getting its multi-billion-dollar network modernization project. Sprint has declined to comment on the topic, and Huawei and ZTE have said they have not been contacted by Sprint about the bidding process. Huawei is also facing renewed opposition within the U.S. government over a small technology deal it completed in May, according to multiple reports.
Huawei has said it plans to add 600 jobs in North America by year-end. Earlier this year Huawei opened up an R&D center in Ottawa, where it expects to add 250 jobs.
For more:
- see this release
- see this Ottawa Business Journal article
- see this GigaOM article
Related Articles:
Huawei runs into regulatory static over technology deal
Huawei keeps U.S. in focus, despite potential Sprint setback
Report: Sprint excludes Huawei, ZTE from network project over security concerns
Huawei outlines three-pronged plan to address security concerns