Huawei hopes to make up next year for lost business

With 3G network deals from Airtel and others coming its way, Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei today said it expects to make up for the business lost in the coming year.

The government had earlier this year banned telecom operators from procurement from foreign vendors, following concerns raised by the home ministry that telecom equipment from some countries could have spyware or malware that gives intelligence agencies across the border access to telecom networks in India.

“The entire issue has hit us. I won’t say it has hit us bad, but it has slowed us down. There were no orders till August... Yes, definitely 3G will help. Since, it’s a new set up for 3G, we are getting new orders,” Huawei Executive Director, Marketing and Strategy, and President India Branch Lester Herbert said.

He added the entire issue had slowed the growth of the company in India, but it expected to recover the lost business in the coming year.

“Beginning of the year, it was extremely bad for almost everybody... We have not lost business because of the guidelines, it was loss of time, it is deferred business.,” he said.

Huawei was one of the first vendors to agree to the demand for providing access to key software code.

“If the country has certain security concerns to be fulfilled, the company should follow it. Our approach is very simple. We want to do business and we follow the laws of the land,” Herbert said.

Asked about the 3G orders bagged by the company, Herbert said, “We got orders from Airtel. The auctions have opened up new markets for us. Also existing customers like Tatas and Reliance Communications, who are extensively using our equipment, will be more than happy to give us additional orders.”

Huawei is betting big on the Indian market as it is the second largest region after China for the company.

“India is an important market for us. In 2009, we did close to $2.4 billion worth of sales, up from $1.1-1.2 billion a year ago. India contributes seven per cent to the global revenues and has grown about 50 per cent CAGR,” Herbert said.

Asked if the company would be able to match last year’s revenue from India, Herbert said, “We have lost so much time that we are desperately scrambling to do as much good as we can, but we will definitely not meet our targets.”

He added that if the entire issue had not happened, the target for the ongoing financial year would have been higher.