by Javier Ureta, Vera Rios
MADRID, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Huawei's partners and customers in Spain highlighted their trust in the company for the reliability it proved since the Chinese technology company landed in the European country in 2001.
"Being a Huawei partner has meant a leap forward in terms of visibility in Spain, thanks to the partnership with them, our customers see us as the suppliers of the best solutions in the market at a very competitive price," the marketing director of Aryan, Ivan Paz, explained in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.
Aryan is a technology company founded 25 years ago that works on data centers, connectivity and security in network services. It has more than 70 employees, and has four offices in Spain.
Huawei has supplied equipment to the company for the last three and a half years. Paz emphasizes that Aryan has improved its product quality since it began its partnership with Huawei.
"Our cooperation with Huawei is a strategic issue for the future of our company. It is a leading manufacturer that in the next few years will surely continue to grow, our growth depends on the relationship with them," he says.
Paz stresses that over this period they have not had" any problem or any doubt" with Huawei.
"Businesses, in the end, are made between peoples, and they have always been friendly, kind and affectionate to us, and we feel part of the Huawei family," the Ayran marketing director said.
His words are echoed by Telefonica CEO, Angel Vila, who, when presenting the report on economic prospects of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last Tuesday, said they have not detected any security breach in their technology providers, including Huawei.
In this sense, Vila suggested to the European Union (EU) that any measure taken in the field of telecommunications should be "based on facts". He advocates measures that prevent commercial wars from affecting technological development.
"We are ready to act and propose to multilateral institutions, like the EU, common field tests in order to ensure that technology is safe and is not linked to other types of commercial disputes that can have collateral damage in technological development," Vila said.
Telefonica, with 122,000 employees worldwide, is considered one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world thanks to its presence in Europe and South America.
Huawei and Telefonica are partners in the implementation of 5G connectivity networks in the Spanish market.
In fact, in the framework of the Mobile World Congress held last February in Barcelona, the Hospital Clinic of the city and Huawei carried out the first 5G tele-mentored operation in history.
Inaki Laucirica, owner of Electrodomesticos Laucirica, says "They (Huawei) made their way into the market very quickly because of their quality, they have always been very serious and we have never had any problems with them."
Laucirica has more than three branches and 25 employees in the Basque city of Bilbao and has been selling Huawei devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and watches, for a decade.
The expert and editor-in-chief of the Teknautas technology section of the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, Manuel Angel Mendez, also says: "Until now, there is not a single test against possible bad practices of Huawei in data management."
In an article published in the newspaper, Mendez points out that "(U.S. President) Donald Trump has started this battle with an excuse that is increasingly difficult to believe: that Huawei works as an undercover spy for the Chinese government."
"The argument would be convincing if there was any evidence that Huawei has created 'backdoors' in its network equipment, the problem is that, to date, no evidence has been found about it", he insists.
The expert comments that "the supposedly espionage of Huawei are the new weapons of mass destruction that dragged the U.S. (and Britain and Spain) into a war against Iraq in 2003."
According to the data revealed by the company, in 2018 Huawei Spain presented a market share of 25 percent in the sale of smartphones.
That same year, Huawei created the first 5G partnership along with the prestigious Polytechnic University of Madrid and organized the Cybersecurity Talent Challenge security contest, launched with the institutional support of the Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE).
