No truth in suggestion that Huawei conceals backdoors in its equipment

Huawei denied on Tuesday a media report saying that Vodafone had found so-called hidden "backdoors" in a software provided by the Chinese conglomerate, nearly a decade ago. Bloomberg reported that Vodafone, Europe's biggest mobile phone company, identified hidden so-called backdoors in software that could have handed Huawei authorized access to the carrier's fixed-line network in Italy used to connect to the internet.

The British telecommunications conglomerate said that it had found security vulnerabilities in two products supplied by Huawei in 2011 and 2012 and that both incidents had been resolved quickly.

Dismissing the report, the Chinese tech giant said: "there is absolutely no truth in the suggestion that Huawei conceals backdoors in its equipment, the Bloomberg story "refers to the maintenance and diagnostic function, common across the industry, as well as vulnerabilities, which were corrected over seven years ago."

Huawei, the world's biggest producer of telecoms equipment, faces pushback in some Western markets over fears Beijing could spy on communications and gain access to critical infrastructure. The Chinese technology giant has announced sales of 5G networks to a handful of carriers and contracts with major carriers in Germany and other countries for field testing. The company says it already has shipped more than 40,000 5G base stations to customers.