There are far fewer avenues blocked to China’s Huawei and ZTE in the global south than in Europe and North America, with Malaysia’s U Mobile latest to turn to both for its wholesale 5G network – the country’s second, which itself has been mired in controversy ever since the government originally set out to build a single common 5G infrastructure. In this case, U Mobile was able to insist that there was no Chinese favoritism because Huawei and ZTE were the only two equipment vendors accepting the operator’s invitation to tender, according to CTO Woon Ooi Yuen. He noted that the selection process began late in 2024, with invitations to tender sent to all the principal network equipment companies. This…