Telecom Fiji says no security concerns on their work with Huawei

A major partner of Huawei Technologies in Fiji, Telecom Fiji Limited has assured Fijians who use their networks that there are no security concerns whatsoever with their work with the Chinese telecommunications company which has been banned from carrying out work on 5G technology in the US, Australia and New Zealand.

In response to questions by FijiVillage, Telecom Fiji CEO Charles Goundar says they use Huawei technology in a limited way, in their Edge network which connects to their core network infrastructure, which is built entirely on CISCO technology.

Telecom Fiji CEO Charles Goundar

CISCO is a US based company and provides solutions for the largest organisations in the world including Microsoft, Telstra and Optus.

Goundar says if anyone tries to access their equipment, they will have to go through rigorous protocols and multiple levels of security provided by leading global security solution providers, for example, they would have to bypass CISCO, Fortinet or Allot firewalls.

US-based Fortinet and Israel-based Allot are world renowned security solution providers for telecommunications companies.

The Australian government has announced Huawei and rival Chinese infrastructure firm ZTE would not be able to use its technology in upcoming 5G networks.

New Zealand has also followed suit with a similar ban.

The US was one of the first to ban Huawei after concerns that Huawei has ties to China’s Communist Party.

Some claim such ties could allow China to spy on the US and other foreign powers through secret backdoors built into Huawei products and services, though no evidence has been formally presented.

Huawei denies that its products could be used for spying.

Goundar says New Zealand’s concern was based around security in relation to the usage of 5G technology.

He adds that Telecom does not use 5G technology at all so this is a non-issue for them.

Goundar adds that they have just launched Fibre internet which is a fixed broadband service, similar to Australia’s National Broadband Network and New Zealand’s Ultra-Fast Broadband service.

Telecom Fiji says Huawei was one of their suppliers in 2016 who assisted with the rollout of 4G and they engage with many such suppliers for many parts of their infrastructure, including Nokia, CISCO, IntelSat, Ericsson, Fujitsu, NEC, and many others.

Goundar says their customers can be rest assured that all their suppliers are selected through strict compliance tests which adhere to international standards and go through thorough background reference checks.

Telecom Fiji says as per standard industry practice, Telecom also engages expertise to conduct detailed technical audits of their infrastructure annually to ensure that they remain fully compliant to international industry standards and best practices, including security.

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