
5G: The Outsourced Elephant in the Room - signa11
https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/5g-elephant-in-the-room/
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pinkfoot
> Because of a relative lack of skills, operators are forced to buy integrated
> solutions, often from single vendors. There is little credible ability left
> to integrate solutions from different (partially competing) suppliers.

I am constantly suprised Hauwei's licensing model doesn't get more attention.

Broadly speaking, they have two licences for the various protocols (CAP, MAP,
etc): \- a really, really cheap one if both ends are Hauwei kit \- an
expensive one if you want to connect third-party kit to a Hauwei box.

So often, when a vendor tries to introduce another vendor's kit, they have to
buy the new expensive protocol licence and the new kit.

This is carefully priced above the cost of Hauwei's equivalent kit.

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cheaprentalyeti
You only get the Subsidy the Chinese put into it if they're allowed to own the
whole ecosystem.

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mark_l_watson
I think the 5G fight is symbolic in the sense of losing face. From the
article:” as noted in this (paywalled) Financial Times article:

As an icebreaker, [telecommunication operators] were asked if they thought the
Chinese could eavesdrop through “backdoors” in Huawei equipment. Every single
hand went up. One of the bankers then asked, for balance, if they thought the
US could access communications through key Cisco equipment. “All the hands
went straight back up without hesitation””

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ycombonator
Outsourcing you say ?

