The German government is considering a ban on certain 5G components made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, according to previous reports
The German government said that the potential high costs of removing components from Huawei from the country’s 5G networks will not be a barrier if it is in the best interests of national security, according to German press reports.
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that if there is a high risk of having components from Chinese vendors Huawei Technologies and ZTE in the local telecom networks, the argument that it will be expensive to replace these components is not an excuse not to move forward with that plan.
“We will prohibit components if they pose a serious security risk,” Faeser said. “The network operators will have to act and dismantle the components.”
Germany originally avoided the implementation of a full ban of Huawei 5G equipment amid U.S. pressure to cut Chinese infrastructure providers. Instead, the government decided that all components that were deemed critical IT infrastructure needed to be certified by the authorities.
According to previous reports, a German interior ministry paper stated that the country is considering a ban on certain 5G components made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE. German media further stated that this ban could include components already built into networks, which would require that operators remove and replace them, reportedly without compensation.
A spokesperson for the interior ministry had previously confirmed to Reuters that as part of its broader review of its relationship with China, the German government is also reevaluating its telecom suppliers. “The main change is that these strict checks for potential security risks now also apply to the existing components in telecommunications networks,” said the spokesperson.
Huawei, one of five Chinese equipment vendors on the Federal Communications Commission’s list of companies that pose “unacceptable risk to national security or the security and safety of U.S. persons,” has been fully or partially banned from a number of countries around the world and amid the pressure from U.S. sanctions.
Huawei has been continuously denying those allegations.
German carrier Deutsche Telekom is not expecting a total ban on Chinese vendor Huawei by the German government, the carrier’s CEO, Tim Höttges, previously said in a conference call with investors.
“When it comes to Huawei, this is a speculative territory. And what Deutsche Telekom and what the other carriers are doing is that we are just following the law, and we are just following the political guidance on this area,” the executive said, referring to the decision by the German government to carry out a security review into all critical components of the country’s mobile networks provided by Chinese vendors.
“There is no ban of Huawei, and I even don’t see a ban coming,” Höttges added.
“We are now mainly using antennas of Huawei which is the access node side. There is a report to the security authorities about which kind of Chinese equipment we’re using and in which part of the infrastructure. And there were no claims from the security authorities towards the pieces we are using.”
Höttges said that the decision by the local authorities is more focused towards minimizing the risks than working towards a total ban of Huawei.
