However, Iran's climate of crushing political dissent raises questions about how it can be used for censorship or surveillance of political opposition.

Iran is said to be beefing up surveillance of its citizens since antigovernment uprisings following the disputed elections of two years ago. A Huawei spokesman is quoted as saying Huawei is just supplying "commercial public use products and services."

The company refuted the assertion in the WSJ article from an unnamed source that says Huawei in 2009 "carried out government orders on behalf of its client, MTN Irancell, that MTN and other carriers had received to suspend text messaging and block the Internet phone service, Skype, which is popular among dissidents."

in Network World's Wide Area Network section.