C114 News Comments on April 5 (Andy) According to the data from Tianyancha and Qichacha, on March 31, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. added a new foreign investment enterprise – Zhongdian Instrument Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “China Electronics Co., Ltd.”). “Electrical Instruments”), Huawei’s subscribed capital contribution amounted to 66.066743 million yuan, and its shareholding ratio reached 8%.
As soon as the news came out, there was a lot of discussion about Huawei’s new foreign investment this time. But from a professional point of view, since the main business of CLP Instruments is simply testing instruments, it is foreseeable that Huawei’s investment in CLP Instruments this time should be aimed at the word “testing”.
So, why should a communications equipment manufacturer and mobile terminal manufacturer like Huawei invest in a testing company?
5G Era: Testing Becomes More Important and More Complex
First, let’s look at the importance of test instrumentation.
At present, 5G is being commercialized worldwide, and the Internet of Things is accelerating the arrival of the era of the Internet of Everything. However, if 5G and IoT technologies want to move smoothly from the laboratory to large-scale commercial use, “testing” the performance of system equipment, network performance and quality, terminals, and security is a very critical link, which can be called the 5G era. “Weights and Measures”.
In particular, in order to realize the characteristics of 5G with large bandwidth and low latency, key 5G technologies such as high-frequency millimeter waves and the introduction of new network architectures such as SDN/NFV are indispensable. These have brought new challenges to traditional testing.
For Huawei, a manufacturer that takes all the wireless and fixed network equipment markets, has both self-developed chips and mobile terminals, and has extremely comprehensive products, whether it is its 5G core network equipment, wireless base stations, fixed network equipment, or chips, mobile phones Terminals require sophisticated test instruments for testing.
Supply situation: the cloud is turbulent, and more domestic partners need to be “backed up” in advance
But looking around, there are only a handful of world-leading test instrumentation and communication-related test solution suppliers, such as Keysight and Spirent from the United States, Rohde & Schwarz from Germany, Anritsu from Japan, etc. Without exception, they are foreign companies, and they have established first-mover and top-notch advantages both in technology and in the market.
In business and business, foreign test manufacturers definitely want to continue to be Huawei’s partners. However, considering the continuous suppression of Huawei by the United States and the turbulent global technology supply chain situation, the cooperation between some foreign test manufacturers and Huawei has been affected to some extent, and the future is still full of uncertainty.
Therefore, for a giant like Huawei that is used to doing a good job of “backup”, while striving to continue to cooperate with foreign test manufacturers, it must also focus on developing some local Chinese test partners in the future.
The skinny reality is that for a long time, testing instruments and meters have always been the weak link in my country’s communication industry chain. Although starting from the TD-SCDMA era, a number of test instrument and meter related companies such as Zhongchuangxin Testing, Opwell, Galaxy Bright, Xiaguang, etc. have been gradually cultivated in China. However, with the iteration of technology and fierce market competition, some domestic test companies have been eliminated in the big wave, and some are still working hard in the 5G era, making continuous progress, and still facing the challenge of a certain gap with foreign giants.
After going through 3G/4G to the 5G era, although China’s communication testing companies have made great progress, foreign testing companies will never stop waiting for you. For Huawei, which is full of many uncertainties in 2020 and the future, the test instrumentation is also a “hole” that Huawei, which compares itself to a “rotten plane”, must plan ahead when filling holes.
Appropriate choice: Investing in a “reliable” third-party testing provider is a realistic path
Although the business unit is huge, it is Huawei that does what it does and does not do. It is not necessary to develop self-developed test instruments, so investing in a “reliable” third-party test instrument supplier is obviously the most appropriate choice at the moment.
And CLP Instruments, whether it is its state-owned enterprise background, or the scale of the enterprise and the wide range of business, is obviously the more “reliable” choice.
Public information shows that CLP Instruments is a second-level enterprise under China Electric Power Group. The company is committed to the exploration and research of the most cutting-edge technologies in Electronic testing, and has achieved a series of major technological breakthroughs in high-end major scientific instruments and general electronic measuring instruments, especially In the fields of microwave and millimeter wave, optoelectronics, communication, basic measurement and related technologies, it has reached the domestic leading and international advanced level; it provides the global market with a full range of electronic measuring instruments and components with independent intellectual property rights, covering high, medium and low ends. device products; can also provide customers with “tailor-made” automatic test solutions.
In terms of scale and capacity, CLP Instrument already has a professional technical team engaged in the research, development and design of electronic measuring instruments, automatic test systems, microwave and millimeter wave components, components and various electronic application products, and has the “electronic testing technology”. Key Laboratory”, “National Defense Science and Technology Industry Optoelectronics First-class Metrology Station”, “National Electronic Instrument Quality Supervision and Inspection Center”, “National Defense Science and Technology Industry Automation Testing Technology Research and Application Center”, “Comprehensive Electronic Testing and Support Equipment Research and Development Center”, ” Information Industry Connector Relay Quality Supervision and Inspection Center” and other national-level professional institutions, with strong research and development, production, testing and experimental verification capabilities.
For the current hot “new infrastructure”, CLP Instruments also has a system layout. For example, in terms of 5G, CLP Instruments began to lay out the R&D layout of 5G communication testing very early. At present, it has broken through many key core technologies and formed categories including material and chip testing, module and device testing, terminal testing, base station testing, and network testing. The “5+X” 5G communication test instrument product system of instrument products can provide a series of test instrument products and solutions for all links and scenarios of the 5G industry chain and operation services. In terms of 5G IoT testing, we can provide customized 5G vertical application testing solutions based on industry characteristics to address the explosive growth of testing needs in the entire 5G IoT market.
To sum up, Huawei’s investment in CLP Instruments, which is “not bad for money”, is obviously not for capital investment, and it is focused on preparing for a rainy day in the future.
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