Is South Korea the next country to snub Huawei?

SK Telecom is apparently not using Huawei at all for its 5G roll out and this could be indicative of a broader shift in sentiment in the country.

The story comes courtesy of ZDNet, which seems to have received an announcement from SK Telecom that it’s going with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung as ‘preferred bidders’ for 5G work. This is consistent with announcements from US operators, which are effectively barred from working with Huawei, and begs the question of whether geopolitical considerations were a factor in SK Telecom’s decision.

The stated reason for its decision is generic and offers no insight into why Huawei was excluded. SK Telecom apparently ‘took a long, multifaceted review before the selection and chose the three companies due to their leading technology, the fostering of the ecosystem, and financial reasons.’ So it’s possible, if unlikely, that Huawei was simply too expensive.

The report also notes that the South Korean government has said it has no plans to ban Huawei and that operator LG Uplus has gone on the record to say what a fan of Huawei gear it is, but it still seems a bit odd that Koreas biggest operator should spontaneously choose to snub the world’s biggest kit vendor.

The suspicion is that US allies, of which South Korea is most definitely one, are receiving pressure through diplomatic back channels to give Huawei a wide berth. The Australian government recently decided to publicly announce its distrust of Huawei but there are other ways of appeasing the US. If KT and/or LG Uplus suddenly take against Huawei too, we will have to wonder whether the decision was made entirely for business reasons.