Huawei Australia warns 5G ban will see its workforce halved

Huawei Australia has warned that it will have to halve its workforce as result of its 5G ban.

Huawei Chairman of Huawei Technologies John Lord. Picture: Gary Ramage

Huawei Australia has warned that it will have to halve its workforce as result of being banned from working on Australian 5G networks, with the Chinese technology giant resigning from peak industry body Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA).

In a letter addressed to AMTA CEO Chris Althaus, Huawei Australia said the ban had already forced it to cut 100 jobs with more on the way.

“The 5G ban is already impacting our business with 100 job losses and if the 5G ban continues on all Chinese companies we expect the number to grow to over 400 in the next two to five years,” Huawei Australia director of corporate and public affairs Jeremy Mitchell warned.

Huawei employs over 700 staff in Australia and Mr Mitchell said that most of the jobs are high-skill technology-based roles.

According to Huawei, AMTA, which represents Australia’s mobile telecommunications industry, had failed to stand up for the Chinese technology giant in Australia in the wake of the federal government’s ban.

“Huawei feels that our business hasn’t been fairly represented by the organisation. AMTA’s decision to not publicly highlight the real effects from the government’s 5G decision on the Australian telecommunications landscape was extremely disappointing,” Mr Mitchell said.

Mr Mitchell added that despite evidence of Huawei’s equipment being capable of working securely inside networks AMTA had failed to provide the necessary guidance to the federal government.

“Given the technical advice presented to the government on the split between core and non-core within 5G is clearly at odds with the global 5G standards and actual rollout of 5G around the world, AMTA had an important voice to ensure that these policy decisions based on facts and the current technology design.”

“Clearly AMTA’s decision to stay silent was in stark contrast to similar associations around the world,” Mr Mitchell said in the letter.

AMTA said in its response that it has not been part of any discussion with the government on banning Huawei.

“At no time has AMTA had any engagement with Government in the decision making processes related to Huawei’s situation,” it said in a statement.

“AMTA regrets the decision taken by Huawei to leave the association.”

Huawei has also rejected claims made by AMTA that Australia is at the forefront of 5G mobile technology, reiterating that the lack of its equipment will put local telcos behind their global peers.

“In recent speeches and media AMTA continues to claim that Australia is a 5G leader, we all know that is not the case,” Mr Mitchell said.

The latest move comes after Huawei Australia chairman John Lord ruled out any chance of the company being allowed to supply 5G equipment in Australia in the near-term. (Link:

“The government has been very clear but we still await the written confirmation that spells out the reasons for the ban but we don’t hold out hope that it will be lifted in the new term,” he told ABC’s AM program on Wednesday.

He reiterated that Huawei Australia was not subject to Chinese law, a major point of concern for Australian intelligence agencies.

“In Australia we obey the laws of the country, Chinese laws don’t apply here, and our equipment is operated by Australian telcos, is maintained by Australians and there is no way any information would be handed over to a foreign government.”

Despite the assurance, things could get even harder of Huawei’s Australian operations, with the subsidiary added to the US government’s list of organisations US companies are banned from working with.

With the restriction set to come into effect in under 90 days, Huawei faces the prospect of not being able to use Google’s Android operating system and software services like Google Maps and YouTube for its future smartphones.