Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Huawei could become Rakon's biggest customer

Updated at 11:47 am on 22 August 2012

Rakon says Huawei could become its biggest customer in the wake of a deal to supply it with electronic components for its infrastructure equipment and smartphones.

The Auckland-based company, which makes components for global positioning systems and mobile phones, expects the deal to be worth at least $SU56 million over the next five years.

Chief executive Brent Robinson says the company has been working for a number of years to position itself to supply to Huawei, which currently accounts for about 2% of Rakon's supply, and the deal aims to quadruple that.

"It could develop into our largest customer," Mr Robinson says.

Headed by a former People's Liberation Army engineer, Huawai has been struggling to expand its business in the United States and Australia because of concerns raised by some critics about the security implications of Chinese inroads into infrastructures such as telecommunications.

Mr Robinson says he does not see Rakon's association with Huawei as a problem.

Rakon's biggest customer currently is Alcatel-Lucent. It also supplies Ericsson.

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