Clearwire selects Huawei as one of its LTE vendors

US WiMAX-turned-Long Term Evolution (LTE) provider Clearwire has confirmed to Fierce Wireless that Chinese vendor Huawei is one of two companies that will build its planned Time Duplex (TD)-LTE network. Huawei, Samsung and Motorola built Clearwire’s existing WiMAX system, and Clearwire has also tapped Samsung and Huawei to upgrade its network to the TD-LTE standard. Clearwire’s decision comes in the wake of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s recommendation that both the Federal government and US companies avoid using equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE because of ongoing security concerns. However, chief technology officer John Saw told Fierce Wireless that the Huawei equipment represents less than 5% of the company’s total LTE spend. He added that Samsung and Huawei base stations are deployed at the edge of the network, while the core network equipment, or the ‘brains’ will be provided by domestic vendors Cisco and Ciena.