Huawei makes its first post-quake shipment to Japan

BEIJING - Huawei Technologies Co, the world's second-biggest maker of mobile-phone networks, said it completed its first shipment of "essential" communications equipment to Tokyo since the earthquake in Japan.

Technical teams from Huawei are working to help repair and restore infrastructure, Jessie Pan, a spokeswoman for Shenzhen, southern China-based Huawei said on Friday. All Huawei employees are safe, and some are working from home or an office in Osaka, she said. Pan didn't immediately have details on the current number of employees in Japan.

The magnitude-9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami damaged both fixed-line systems and base stations required for wireless networks run by all of Japan's mobile phone companies including NTT DoCoMo Inc and KDDI Corp, the nation's telecommunications ministry said on Thursday. Huawei's website describes the company as "relatively new" to the Japanese market and a supplier to the Emobile wireless Internet unit of Eaccess Ltd.