上月在巴塞罗那召开的全球移动大会(Mobile World Congress)上，华为(Huawei Technologies)成为一家全球性电信设备供应商的成功，可谓有目共睹。
在这个业界主要展会上，华为布置了巨大的市场推广展厅，展厅内的电脑上展示着世界地图，让潜在客户有机会一览这家中国企业在全球各地的客户分布。
但地图上同时显示出，还有一个国家华为尚未真正进入。那就是美国。
2008年，由前解放军军官任正非创立的华为加入了一个由私人股本基金牵头的财团，试图收购美国网络设备制造商3Com公司。由于来自美国国会的反对，该交易最终告吹。议员们担心该交易可能危及国家安全，因为3Com公司向五角大楼提供防范网络攻击的技术。
今年1月，美国互联网搜索引擎谷歌(Google)声称其系统遭到黑客攻击，加深了美国国内对来自中国的网络攻击的担心。华盛顿和北京之间围绕谷歌事件的外交争执，突显出中国企业在美国可能面临严苛的审核。但华为希望自己能够通过销售方面的努力在美国市场上打开局面，即使这需要很长的时间。
华为希望通过在美国和加拿大获得的一些金额较小的移动基础设施合同，为今后在北美获得更多的订单开路。
华为战略与市场总裁胡厚�(Ken Hu)重点介绍了去年签下的一项合同。按照该合同，华为将向美国电信公司Clearwire供应基于名为WiMax的4G无线技术的基础设施。Clearwire为笔记本电脑用户提供移动互联网接入服务。
尽管胡厚�表示，华为在美国市场仍处于“开发阶段”，但他提到了去年赢得的一个合同，即向加拿大第二大移动运营商贝尔公司(Bell)供应3G基础设施，用于手机上网的交易。
胡厚�表示：“在美国和加拿大众多交易的成功展开，将增进（移动运营商）对我们的了解，同时随着时间的推移，使它们对华为的产品和技术更为信任。”
华为迄今尚未获得主宰美国市场的四大移动运营商的合同。这四家公司分别是：Verizon无线、美国电话电报公司(AT＆T)、Sprint和德国电信(T-Mobile)美国公司。
伯恩斯坦(Bernstein)的分析师皮埃尔•费拉居(Pierre Ferragu)表示，未来两三年内，华为不太可能在美国市场取得重大进展，部分原因在于谷歌黑客攻击事件之后的中美关系状况。
费拉居同时指出，在2008年和去年，在Verizon无线和美国电话电报公司关于4G技术LTE的网络基础设备大型采购中，华为也没有斩获。两家公司的合同授予了爱立信(Ericsson)和阿尔卡特朗讯(Alcatel-Lucent)。
与竞争对手一样，华为也渴望获得相当数量的LTE早期合同，因为预计LTE将是一种领先的4G技术。
在欧洲，华为已在小额LTE合同争夺中取得成功。去年11月和12月，它获得了来自挪威移动运营商Telenor的订单，分别涉及挪威和瑞典市场。
法国兴业银行(Société Générale)的分析师表示，华为在欧洲市场的成功拓展，加之在一些发展中国家获得的交易，已帮助它在去年成为全球第二大移动网络设备制造商，仅次于爱立信。五年前，华为是全球第五大移动网络设备制造商。
华为预计今后的增长速度将有所放缓，部分原因在于，规模扩大后，它已无法保持近几年的冲刺速度。胡厚�表示，华为去年获得了300亿美元的订单，比2008年增长了30%，这一定程度上要归功于来自中国国内市场的合同，中国移动运营商正在以3G技术升级其网络。但胡厚�表示，今年的订单金额预计将比2009年增长20%。“维持类似于我们以往的增长速度非常困难，”他补充道。
译者/功文
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001031764
The success of Huawei Technologies in becoming a global supplier of telecoms equipment was laid out for all to see at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month.
Inside Huawei's huge marketing tent at the industry's main trade fair, computers showing maps of the world gave prospective customers the chance to see the spread of the Chinese company's clients across much of the globe.
But the maps also showed one country where Huawei has yet to make serious inroads: the US.
Huawei, founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in the People's Liberation Army, was part of a private equity-led consortium that in 2008 tried to buy 3Com, a US network equipment maker. The deal fell apart because of opposition from Washington lawmakers, who were concerned the transaction could jeopardise national security because 3Com supplies the Pentagon with technology to guard against cyberattacks.
Concerns about China-based cyber attacks intensified in January when Google, the US internet search engine, claimed its systems had been hacked. The ensuing diplomatic fall-out between Washington and Beijing underlined how Chinese companies are likely to face tough scrutiny in the US. But Huawei is hoping it can make progress with its sales efforts in the US, even if it takes a long time.
Huawei is counting on some smaller mobile infrastructure deals which it has already won in the US and Canada to enable it to secure more orders in North America.
Ken Hu, Huawei's chief marketing officer, highlights a deal made last year under which it is supplying infrastructure based on 4G wireless technology called WiMax to Clearwire, a US telecoms company providing laptop users with internet access on the move.
Although Mr Hu says the US market is still in the “development phase”, he points to a deal last year to supply Bell, Canada's second-largest mobile operator, with 3G infrastructure that enables web surfing on handsets.
“Through the successful deployment – the cases in the US and in Canada – it will help the [mobile operators] to get more understanding and also over time more trust about Huawei's products and the technologies,” he says.
Huawei has yet to secure deals with the four leading mobile operators – Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile USA – that dominate the US market.
Pierre Ferragu, analyst at Bernstein, says Huawei is unlikely to make significant inroads in the US market for the next two to three years, partly because of the state of US-China relations following the Google hacking claims.
Mr Ferragu also points out that Huawei has not featured in the large deals awarded by Verizon Wireless and AT&T in 2008 and last year for network infrastructure based on 4G technology called LTE. The deals went to Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.
Like its rivals, Huawei is keen to secure a critical mass of early deals involving LTE, given that it is expected to be the leading 4G technology.
Huawei has had success with smaller LTE deals in Europe. Last November and December it secured orders with Telenor, the Norwegian mobile operator, in its home market and Sweden.
Huawei's progress into the European market, together with deals in some developing countries, helped transform it last year into the second-largest mobile network equipment maker after Ericsson, according to analysts at Société Générale. Five years ago, Huawei was the fifth-largest mobile network maker.
Huawei expects its growth to slow, partly because its increased size means it cannot sustain the spurt of recent years. Mr Hu says Huawei secured orders worth $30bn last year, up 30 per cent on 2008, partly because of deals in China, where mobile operators are upgrading their networks with 3G technology. But Mr Hu says this year's orders are expected to be 20 per cent higher compared to 2009. “It's very hard to maintain the similar growth we enjoyed in the past,” he adds.
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