Germany clears Huawei for 5G
Germany's telecommunications regulator has sent a clear
signal that will not ban Huawei from its country's 5G mobile network upgrades.
Jochen Homann, the president of the Bundesnetzagentur, or
federal network agency, told the Financial Times, "The position the
Bundesnetzagentur takes is that no equipment supplier, including Huawei,
should, or may, be specifically excluded."
Last month, the US ambassador to Berlin warned the German
government that Washington would consider scaling back intelligence
co-operation should Huawei be given a role in the 5G roll-out.
The US has been on a push to get allies to drop Huawei,
which it alleges colludes with the Chinese government on covert surveillance.
But Homann said his agency had yet to see evidence to back
up such concerns:
"The Bundesnetzagentur has not received any concrete
indications against Huawei. Nor are we aware of any other body in Germany that
has received any reliable indications," he told the FT.
The German regulator's words will fresh impetus to Huawei
NZ, which recently told the Herald it still hopes to participate in 5G upgrades
here, where it has extensive 4G business with Spark and 2degrees.
On November 28, the GCSB blocked a Spark 5G network upgrade
proposal that included Huawei gear. GCSB minister Andrew Little says Huawei is
not banned per se. Spark and Huawei are welcome to submit a revised proposal
that addresses the (never-made-public) concerns raised by the spy agency. Spark
says it's still assessing its position.
Huawei also took succor from a recent UK report, which said
criticised Huawei technology but did not find evidence of a "back
door" that could be exploited by the Chinese government.
Huawei NZ deputy chief executive told the Herald on April 2
that the UK finding of "clumsy coding" made for
"uncomfortable" reading. But although embarrassing, it was a
technical issue that could be addressed by software engineering tweaks, not an
espionage issue.
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