5G: Huawei and ZTE banned from the Swedish network
After the United Kingdom in July, it was Sweden's turn to explicitly ban the Chinese groups Huawei and ZTE from its new future 5G telecoms network, invoking national security.
The decision was taken following a review by the Swedish Telecom Regulatory Authority (PTS), together with the army and intelligence, aimed at "ensuring that the use of frequencies does not endanger Sweden's security".
Huawei and ZTE will therefore be banned from all "central functions", i.e. more or less the entire network according to the inventory drawn up by the PTS. By 1 January 2025, all equipment already installed that could be used for 5G will have to be removed. This deadline is even shorter than the one set by London, which gave a deadline of 2027.
Leading the campaign against Huawei is the United States. Since the spectacular banning of the Chinese group by President Donald Trump in May 2019, Washington has been openly encouraging its European partners to do the same. The American intelligence services fear above all that Huawei will allow the Chinese authorities to use its equipment to monitor communications and data traffic. Huawei assures that it would refuse any such request from Chinese intelligence.
While Japan and Australia have followed the American movement, European positions remain widely divergent and the recommendations made by Brussels are non-binding. Without having expressed it publicly, France has in fact banned the use of Huawei equipment for 5G in "very dense zones". The periods of use of the equipment will also be limited to eight years.
Slovenia and Romania have also taken measures to facilitate the exclusion of Huawei from tenders. Spain, Poland and Greece, on the other hand, are planning to allow operators to use Huawei's equipment.
Source : FRENCHWEB.FR