The Italian government has just vetoed, for the first time, the signature of an agreement between the operator Fastweb and Huawei for the supply of 5G network cores. This decision suggests that Italy may reconsider its position regarding the presence of Huawei equipment on its 5G network.

Huawei had been selected by Fastweb, the Italian division of Swisscom, as the sole supplier of the core network. A fact that undoubtedly led the government to veto the project.

While other countries such as the United Kingdom and France have already taken decisions to eventually ban Huawei's access to 5G networks, Italy had not yet taken a decision to do so. However, some people close to the government or actors in the industrial world claim that Rome is in fact taking a pro-American line on 5G. Companies using Huawei equipment for their 5G network are subject to restrictions on remote interventions to solve technical problems and an extremely high security threshold.

In order to be able to withdraw if Rome imposes too costly conditions in exchange for its green light, Italian telecom companies have included exit clauses in their contracts with Huawei on 5G. Telecom Italia (TIM) even went so far as to exclude Huawei from a tender for its 5G core network. The Italian government could therefore review its position regarding Huawei's role in 5G and in particular for the core network part.

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Source : L'Usine Digitale

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.

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Source : FRENCHWEB.FR