Sprint Rejects Chinese Equipment Manufacturer Bids Due to Government Pressure
Humberto SaabedraA report filed by the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that Sprint has eliminated preliminary bid winners ZTE and Huawei from a multi-hundred million dollar networking equipment contract due to concerns raised by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke regarding potential security issues and warning CEO Hesse about possible ties between the two companies and Chinese government infrastructure.
While the Commerce Department insists that Locke never explicitly told Hesse to exclude the companies, the argument was convincing enough to exclude them from bidding, with the carrier going back into negotiations with Samsung and Alcatel-Lucent for network infrastructure.
