Austria’ technology ministry said on Wednesday emphasizing on a joint decision of European countries upon the fate of Huawei and whether or not the Chinese company should be allowed to take part in the Europe’s next-generation of mobile networks roll outs as it will ensure fair competition.
The European Commission, due to security concerns, has been thinking about imposing an effective ban on the 5G network equipment of Huawei, as in this week, European politicians remained lobbied by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to bar the network products of the Chinese firm.
In its statement, the Austrian ministry said that in its opinion addressing the issue as well as coming up with a common narrative both at European Commission level will be more helpful.
But, that should be done in way which should not stop the technology deployment in the Europe and Austria as well, it added.
United States has been concerning about Huawei over its ties with the Chinese government and possibility of the company’s equipment could be used for spying by the Beijing, and for those fears, in August last year, had banned Huawei which is world’s largest network equipment provider and its sales surpasses $100 billion annually.
On the other hand, Huawei repeatedly denied those allegations and also denied any control of China over it. The Chinese firm on Wednesday in a statement showed its readiness to work with governments and willingness to face extra security checks in order to resolve the issue.
Telecom carriers in Austria remained using Huawei equipment but in the absence of a firm stance of EU, are not in position to precede further towards their 5G launch as A1 Telekom Austria, which is controlled by Austrian state and Mexico’s America Movil, said that the company remained using Huawei’s parts but its main supplier for network equipments is Nokia, while its Chief Executive Thomas Arnoldner said that decision upon the 5G equipment is still pending.
T-Mobile Austria, which is an Austrian unit Deutsche Telekom, has said that Huawei, Cisco and Nokia are its suppliers for network equipments but has been in a process of re-assessment of procurement strategy.
