This week, Chinese tech giant Huawei is celebrating 15 years of operation in Aotearoa.
In a media release marking the milestone, the company says it's sold more than 1.2 million mobile phones in New Zealand to date, among other achievements.
Huawei touts its "significant role in transforming the country's telecommunications infrastructure", highlighting its partnerships with Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees in rolling out fibre, 3G and 4G networks, and trialling 5G.
However, the release doesn't mention the highly notable Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) blocking of Spark's proposal to use Huawei 5G equipment in its network in 2018.
That move, made over security risks, led to Huawei's NZ managing director Yanek Fan threatening to pull the company out of Aotearoa in a letter to GCSB Minister Andrew Little.
But Huawei didn't pull out of New Zealand and went on to win the 2020 Canstar Award for most satisfied customers in the smartphone category.
"We have come a long way in 15 years and are excited about what's next," says Fan in the release.
"Our commitment to New Zealand has been unwavering and we plan to continue helping our customers and partners reach their end goals through our state-of-the-art technology and ongoing investment in innovation."
Among the other achievements Huawei lists are its release of the world's first smartphone with a te reo Māori language operating system in 2017 along with helping build 30 percent of the technology behind the Government's ultra-fast broadband programme.
