House committee to investigate China’s Huawei, ZTE
A U.S. House Intelligence Committee is launching an investigation into Chinese telecommunication equipment suppliers Huawei and ZTE to determine whether the companies pose a security threat to the U.S.
The investigation will examine if Huawei's and ZTE's expansion into the U.S. market gives the Chinese government an opportunity to hijack the nation's infrastructure to conduct espionage. U.S. lawmakers worry that the networking equipment sold could secretly contain Chinese military technology to spy on U.S. telecommunications.
"The fact that our critical infrastructure could be used against us is of serious concern," said U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who along with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger announced the investigation in a statement Thursday.
The investigation is the latest obstacle Huawei has faced in its U.S. business activities. In September, the U.S. Department of Commerce said it had informed Huawei that the company was barred from participating in a project to build a national wireless network. The Department of Commerce has declined to explain why, citing security reasons. Read more...
Microsoft’s mobile software gets HTC, ZTE lift
Microsoft's new Windows Phone platform won instant support from major manufacturers on Wednesday when China's ZTE and Taiwan's HTC Corp pledged to launch smartphones running the software.
The software giant had stepped up its push into the cellphone market a day earlier with the launch of the new Windows Phone software, code-named Mango. It hopes a host of new features will help it close the gap on smartphone leaders Google Inc and Apple Inc.
Microsoft has struggled for years to gain support from mobile phone manufacturers. All vendors in total sold just 1.6 million Windows Phones last quarter, giving it a market share of below 2 percent. Google and Apple together control more than 50 percent of the smartphone market. Read more...