The Chinese company that has been banned from tendering for the National Broadband Network says it still wants to bid on parts of the $38 billion project.

Huawei, which operates in more than 100 countries and has been in Australia since 2004, was shut out from the tender process because of national security reasons.

The Federal Government says it made its decision because it has a responsibility to protect the integrity of the NBN and the information carried on it.

But chairman John Lord says while he may be excluded from the core of the NBN, there are still parts of the project he may pursue.

"Our argument will always be that there is core parts of the national infrastructure that companies like us would not expect to be in," he told Inside Business.

"We would still argue that there are parts of the NBN that are perhaps suitable. Having said that, the NBN's not the only game in town.

"Our future in Australia is long-term. We're here to stay and we believe there's bigger markets.

"What hangs off the national telecommunications infrastructure is where the real market is in the future."

Mr Lord says there are always national interest factors at play in telecommunications infrastructure.

"Huawei's been very open about this and open around the world," he said.

"There are national security interests in infrastructure and in telecommunications infrastructure - certainly we never envisage putting our telecommunications infrastructure into Parliament House, or the Department of Defence.

"That's never been a market we've looked at. We are in the broader commercial world and in the broader aspects of NBNs around the world.

"We're working on eight out of nine around the world."

Sorry, this video has expired Huawei locked out of NBN tender process

After news of Huawei's ban broke, China's Foreign Ministry called on the Australian Government to provide fair market access for Chinese companies.

Mr Lord says he hopes that the decision to exclude Huawei was actually based on national interest.

"We don't know what other companies are not allowed to bid for the NBN either, so in the national interest, one hopes that's the reason for the decision," he said.

Huawei learned it was locked out of the NBN just before Christmas when a government official told the company not to tender for contracts.

The company is headed by a former People's Liberation Army engineer and China has been accused of stealing secrets in Cyberspace by the United States Office of National Counterintelligence Executive, which identifies foreign intelligence threats.

Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer, who sits on the company's Australian board, has rejected any security concerns.

"This whole concept of Huawei being involved in cyber warfare - presumably that would be based on the fact the company comes from China - that is just completely absurd," he told 7.30 last week.