To bar China’s Huawei Technologies from a fifth generation (5G) mobile networks buildout in the country, ways including stricter security requirements are actively under consideration of the German government, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported.
Setting up such standards that could be unachievable by Huawei to block its participation in 5G buildout is what the government official are discussing, said Handelsblatt citing government sources. As a last option, they were also pondering changes to the German telecommunications law, the paper said.
Following warnings from Washington, German government, in October, came up with their stance telling the lawmaker of having no legal grounds to exclude any vendor from an upcoming 5G auction, and current debate would mark a shift from that previous stance of the government.
In a more recent response, the government has told the lawmakers, that the security of 5G networks is the most important factor which will also direct them in their decisions in coming days, Handelsblatt reported.
Earlier, allies was briefed by the U.S. officials that Huawei is working for the Chinese state and warned them of its network equipment possibly be used for spying.
For their concern about Huawei, France’s Orange decided to not include the Chinese giant to build its next-generation network in France and in December, an announcement of reviewing its vendor strategy was made by the Germany’s Deutsche Telekom.
As a U.S. ally, Australia remained the first country to exclude the Huawei from building its fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks, and current shift of Deutsche Telekom and Orange, both are national market leader in their respective countries and partially state-owned entities, has included the Germany and France in that.
Huawei came with the stance of not accepting any allegation without proof and the arrest of its chief financial officer in Canada last month upon the request of the United States came out with heightened tensions.
