The country, however, is reportedly considering a ban on certain components made by Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE
Deutsche Telekom is not seeing a total ban on Chinese vendor Huawei by the German government, the carrier’s CEO, Tim Höttges, 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 a previous 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.”
The executive said that the decision by the local authorities is more focused towards minimizing the risks than working towards a total ban of Huawei.
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. In Europe, though, only Britain and Sweden have officially banned Huawei and ZTE from supplying 5G network equipment.
Huawei has been continuously denying those allegations.
