The increasing pressure on Huawei gives NEC and its new partner NTT a "final chance" to compete in the global competition for 5G equipment supply, NEC CEO Takashi Niino said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Right now NEC and NTT are targeting market opportunities in the U.S. and the U.K..
Niino said the Japanese company has a chance to revive its waning influence against the backdrop of rising trade protectionism and the U.S. government's pressure on countries, including Britain, to exclude Chinese supplier Huawei from its telecoms network.
NEC is ambitious, aiming to increase its share of the global base station market by 2030 from the current 0.7 percent to 20%.
Outside of the Japanese market, NEC's main target is the United States. But the Japanese supplier is also looking to regain a foothold in the UK market.
The U.K. has capped the use of Huawei equipment at 35 percent on national security grounds, and the U.K. government is currently reviewing and evaluating that cap in light of the new U.S. sanctions.
On Tuesday, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officially listed Huawei as a national security threat, citing its close ties to the Chinese military and Chinese government.
"In the wake of the Huawei issue, governments worldwide are considering what options are out there,” Niino told the Financial Times. “There is a chance for NEC to be part of those options, a possibility that hardly existed in the past."
