Huawei, a company that has already been banned in the United States, faces the ban in all member states of the European Union after the increase in concern about this brand and being considered a “risk provider” in 5G infrastructures.
He Chinese tech giant Huawei You may soon have one more ban: using European networks. The European Union is considering banning member states from using companies that are considered a security risk on their 5G networks.
Huawei in the crosshairs of the European Union
After the veto in the United States, which considered it “a criminal company that robbed American companies, violated sanctions against North Korea and made false statements to the FBI”, Huawei could be banned in the European Union. According to the Financial Times, it is raising concern in Brussels regarding the risk posed by the fact that certain companies use 5G infrastructures.
So far, only a third of European Union member countries have banned Huawei from critical parts of 5G networks. The Brussels recommendations, unanimously agreed by member states in 2020, are to exclude these companies that are considered “high risk providers for technology investments. It is difficult that the new rules that imply the prohibition arrive before 2024.
Before the end of the five-year mandate of the current European Commission in 2024 no changes are expected. You would need to get the endorsement of the European Parliament and the Council, that is, of the member states for any new law. Several European nations are reassessing their dependence on China for critical telecommunications infrastructure. Portugal is preparing to ban Huawei from some 5G equipment in a policy change. The country is one of the largest recipients per capita of Chinese investment in Europe. Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the EU, plus the UK, have already banned Huawei equipment from their 5G infrastructure.
Their networks and smartphones for 5G mobile telephony have been blocked in key markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, among others, due to security fears. Huawei denies the accusations that the use of its equipment implies a risk of espionage by China. But the company, once the world’s biggest smartphone maker, has seen sales plummet after the United States banned access to key components and barred it from using Google’s Android operating system for smartphones.
Huawei’s presence in Spain’s 5G
Spain is one of those countries that has not yet adopted an official position on the matter. Our country signed a 5G cybersecurity law in March 2022 that would allow the presence of these risk providers to be prohibited. critical areas of 5G networks, such as the core. For now, these bans have been inactive pending a coordinated European move to avoid Chinese reprisals.
In Spain, there are several operators that would be affected directly. The most would be Vodafone, which has 70% of its antennas in its radio spectrum network supplied by Huawei in our country. Orange would have a somewhat less pronounced impact, but it would still be worrying, with approximately 50% of its mobile locations being targeted by the Chinese brand.
Both the red and orange operators at least do not have Huawei at the core of their networks, the providers being Nokia and Ericsson, respectively. This is exactly the critical point for Movistar, who do not use Huawei in their radio equipment (Ericsson and Nokia), but do use Huawei in a part of the 5G core, although they already have plans to replace the Chinese manufacturer in the medium term.
