China's telecommunications giant Huawei, which has been enhancing cooperation with big telecom operators across Europe and Asia, is on its way to occupying "a prime position" to lead the next-generation 5G networks global race, Reuters reported.
Huawei has been competing with rivals including Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia in several European countries, some of which are longtime U.S. allies, the report said.
In Europe, Huawei has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to try out 5G equipment with Britain's BT, Bell Canada, France's Orange, Germany's Deutsche Telekom and British multinational network provider Vodafone, among others, the report noted.
Earlier this week, Huawei and Vodafone announced they had completed the first 5G call in the world. In a press communique, Huawei confirmed the call was made using a dual "4G to 5G connection" at speeds which are eight times faster than the current 4G standard.
These MoUs agreements indicate that many countries allied to the United States do not share Washington's security concerns, the Reuters report noted, citing the Senate bill earlier this month that would ban equipment from Huawei from any U.S. government networks.
Aside from MoUs agreements, Huawei's existing partnerships with operators could give the company "an extra edge" in 5G era, the Reuters report noted, saying it had supplied more than half of the 4G networks and 4.5G networks globally as of 2016.
