US President Donald Trump is urging European countries to abandon Huawei, but the Swiss say that they’ll move forward with Huawei as a 5G partner.
Swiss oppose Trump, see Huawei as 5G partner
The Swiss are using Huawei 5G technology to create “cash cows”. These are monitoring animals by way of Huawei’s internet-connected neck straps in the northern Swiss village of Taenikon. The neck straps are called “Fitbit for cows” by some. They monitor all sorts of health information on cows, such as eating and sleeping routines and sickness, among others.
Out in Taenikon’s Cistercian abbey, Huawei and Switzerland are testing out their 5G network together. The Swiss are becoming famous for their 5G deployment with Huawei because, of course, Huawei is at the forefront of the 5G movement. The company is already researching 6G at its Ottawa Lab in Canada.
From these actions alone, the Swiss are making it clear that they don’t stand with Trump and that they do stand with Shenzhen.
Swiss view Huawei differently than Trump
It’s clear from the above words that the Swiss don’t see Huawei as Trump does. He sees the Chinese OEM as a “threat to national security,” while the Swiss say otherwise. It’s interesting, but the British government said the same thing about Huawei in its vote to allow the company access to its network periphery (35%). Britain said at that time that it didn’t see how Huawei could be such a major threat to its network if it only allowed Huawei a limited amount of access (such as one-third instead of the whole kit and kaboodle; meaning, the entire network).
Are the Swiss being careful enough? Are the US’ accusations exaggerated?
The Swiss want to deploy 5G and they want it to benefit their business. The nation is in the business of making Swiss cheese, which comes from their own cows. And using 5G to monitor cow health is important to ensure that Swiss cheese is always the superior choice. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating the benefits of 5G.
5G will bring in more of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) agenda, where cars, homes, mobile devices, and everything down to doorknobs and coffee cups will “talk to each other” and share information about plans for the day and favorite health foods. And yet, one can focus so much on the benefits of 5G so as to overlook the serious nature of the question surrounding Huawei.