What’s up with… Huawei, China Mobile, Keysight

• Huawei’s Q1 under scrutiny
• China Mobile 5G subs update
• Keysight gets a Rakuten Mobile badge

Here’s what caught our eye on the wires today:

• Huawei released some unaudited numbers for the first quarter of 2020 that confirms it’s still the megashark of the telecom vendor community (sales of CNY182.2 billion, equal to $25.7 billion at today’s exchange rate), suggests it is still growing and profitable, and proves it loves a bit of entertaining corporate poetry (“A seed that survives the storm will sprout and then blossom…”). For more of such prose, check out this official statement.

• China Mobile noted in its first quarter report that it had 31.7 million 5G customers at the end of March, up from 15.4 million at the end of February and just 2.55 million at the end of 2019. Overall it has 946 million mobile customers, 4 million fewer that at the end of last year, but that’s still a mind-boggling number, right, especially as China has two other operators providing cellular services.   

• With Rakuten Mobile just about the hottest carrier customer reference around, it’s no wonder that test and measurement specialist Keysight Technologies is keen to highlight that the disruptive Japanese operator is using its 5G network and channel emulation tools. For more details, see this press release. Rakuten Mobile launched services on its next-gen mobile network on 7 April, since when Mavenir has also boasted of its involvement with the operator.

• Cloud-friendly BSS specialist Optiva has appointed Ashish K Joshi as its new CFO. Joshi has his work cut out, as loss-making Optiva is in the midst of a dramatic corporate turnaround that requires $100 million of investments to get to the promised land, and not all the investors are as enthusiastic as CEO Danielle Royston. Things could come to a head at the company’s planned shareholders’ meeting, set for August 11 (travel permitting).

• Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV

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