Rakuten CEO: Very Difficult to Use Chinese Venders for a While

Rakuten CEO Mickey Mikitani says he’s happy he didn’t choose to use Huawei and ZTE. “I kind of sensed the potential risk even if it’s only one percent” said Mikitani. “I told myself actually I cannot take a one percent risk that something may happen to prohibit Chinese network equiptment to be used for the Japanese mobile network. So I decided not to use Huawei or ZTE because of the risk.”

Mikitani added, “I don’t know what is going to happen to be very honest as far as the telecom industry is concerned, but it is very difficult to use Chinese vendors for a while.”

Mickey Mikitani, founder, chairman, and CEO of Rakuten, Inc., talks about his fortunate decision not to use Chinese vendors in an interview with Bloomberg Technology:

Decided Not to Use Huawei or ZTE Because of the Risks

One thing I can tell you is when we were deciding what kind of network equipment we are going to use I talked with the Japanese government and asked about whether I should use Chinese network equipment or not. They said no problem, use it. But I kind of sensed the potential risk even if it’s only one percent. I told myself actually I cannot take a one percent risk that something may happen to prohibit Chinese network equipment to be used for the Japanese mobile network. So I decided not to use Huawei or ZTE because of the risk.

Happy I Didn’t Choose Huawei and ZTE

I don’t know what’s true or not but I’m very happy I didn’t choose them. If I had chosen them that would mean I would need to go back one year and I cannot rush my service. We chose Nokia, but basically we are building our own hardware. We just buy certain hardware from Nokia but maybe in the next generation we’re going to build our own. So it’s a totally different concept.

We are an IT company integrating and building core network, radio station network, all the technology by ourselves. Versus other telcos which are asking system integrators to integrate everything. I don’t know what is going to happen to be very honest as far as the telecom industry is concerned, but it is very difficult to use Chinese vendors for a while.

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