France also to phase out Huawei’s 5G equipment
July 28, 2020 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
French authorities have told telecoms operators planning to buy Huawei 5G equipment that they will not be able to renew licenses for the equipment once they expire, effectively phasing the Chinese firm out of mobile networks. Like other countries in Europe, France is laying the groundwork for its next-generation 5G mobile market in the middle of growing antagony between China and the U.S. The U.S. government says Huawei’s equipment could be used by the Chinese government for espionage – a charge denied by Huawei and Beijing – and has pressed its allies to ban it. France’s cybersecurity agency ANSSI said this month it would allow operators to use equipment, including Huawei’s, under licenses of three to eight years. But it added it was urging telcos not currently using the Chinese company’s equipment to avoid switching to it. The bulk of authorizations for the use of Huawei equipment were for three or five years, while most of those for equipment from European rivals Ericsson or Nokia received eight-year licenses. ANSSI’s decisions have not been made public, either by the agency or by the companies.
Sources added that operators had also been told by French authorities during informal conversations in recent months that licenses granted for Huawei equipment would not be renewed thereafter. ANSSI declined to comment. A Spokesman for the Prime Minister’s office, which oversees the permissions on 5G equipment, said ANSSI was working with operators within the legal framework, adding that any authorization granted at present did not impinge on whether these would later be renewed or interrupted. Huawei declined to comment. Such restrictions, though, would amount to a de facto phase-out of Huawei within France’s 5G networks by 2028, given the short time frame of the licenses, according to sources, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
French operators might still manage to get an eight-year authorization for Huawei equipment in some cases, and could yet decide to use the equipment during that time period, the sources said. But even this meant eventually dismantling it, they added. One of the sources said it would be difficult for a telecoms operator to take the risk of investing in Huawei equipment, given new mobile technology like 5G takes at least eight years to yield a return on investment. “Granting three years amounts to a flat refusal,” the person added.
An effective ban would be particularly troublesome for Bouygues Telecom and Altice Europe’s SFR, the two French telecoms operators that already use Huawei’s equipment in their current mobile network. The two operators declined to comment on whether they would now drop any purchase plans for Huawei equipment. France’s two other major operators, leader Orange and Iliad, mainly rely on Nokia, Ericsson or both for their mobile networks. In Britain, where major telecoms groups are heavily reliant on Huawei technology, the government has ordered the Chinese company’s equipment to be purged from the 5G network by 2027. “France’s position is similar to that of Britain, but the government’s communication is different,” one of the sources said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
According to the Global Times, new evidence Huawei has provided to a Canadian court shows how HSBC conspired with the U.S. Department of Justice to set a “political trap” for Huawei and its CFO Meng Wanzhou and gave false testimony to the court. The bank denied any wrongdoing, but it might still be the target of Chinese sanctions. If Huawei’s evidence against the lender is proven to be true, the charges against Meng Wanzhou will no longer have any foundation, and HSBC should be prepared for a “harsh punishment” in China, such as being sued in Chinese courts, one Beijing-based observer told the Global Times.
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