There has been increased pressure on the Chinese telecom giant Huawei from the US and a number of other western countries and the US has been pressurizing its allies to ban the company from their national 5G telecom networks. The primary allegation against Huawei is that its equipment can be used by Chinese agencies for spying as claimed by Washington. The company on its part has however denied all such allegations.

This report provides the position of some of the major countries with respect to Huawei and its inclusion in the development of 5G networks.

The US

Huawei has been barred from doing business in the U.S. for many years. Allegations of spying against the company have been primarily brought by the US.

In recent times, its tirade against the company has been increased by Washington. The daughter of the company founder and Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in December in Canada at the behest of the US over accusations of her links to fraud related to violations of US sanctions on Iran.

The European Union

There has so far been divided response to Huawei in the EU with their own decisions being made by individual countries. The institutions of te EU are also trying to develop a unified policy to the company.

The European Commission issued recommendations in March around 5G security. The EU’s executive arm said that member states should carry out a cybersecurity risk assessment on their own nation’s network, which would eventually lead to a bloc-wide assessment later in the year. The idea is to come up with a list of risks and ways to mitigate them. Huawei was not named in EU recommendations and no ban has been put on the company by the block.

Japan

In December, Huawei and other Chinese companies were effectively banned from public procurement even though the government did not specifically name Huawei in its guidelines. Telecom operators were however warned about equipment they use and to undertake security risks assessments. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, a decision of not making use of Huawei’s equipment in the rollout of 5G had been taken by the three main mobile carriers  of Japan – SoftBank Group, NTT Docomo and KDDI.

Germany

Germany’s telecommunications regulator has decided not to prevent Huawei from participating in the country’s 5G networks.

No equipment suppliers, including Huawei, “should, or may, be specifically excluded,” said Jochen Homann, president of regulator the Bundesnetzagentur, in a recent interview to the Financial Times.

The UK

Only non-core parts of the 5G network would be open for4 Huawei to participate according to a report published in the Guardian and Telegraph newspapers.

Huawei would be allowed to sell equipment to British carriers for “non-core” parts of the network as decided by Britain’s National Security Council, which is chaired by Prime Minister Theresa May, reported the two media.

India

No decision about allowing or banning Huawei has been taken yet and the company has been invited into the country along with its Nokia and Ericsson, for 5G trials.

France

Huawei is not banned from selling 5G equipment in France even though a bill intended to implement strict tests to ascertain whether any security risks are posed by the vendor’s network equipment is being currently debated by lawmakers.

Brazil

Huawei has not been banned or restricted despite eh US issuing warnings to the Brazilian government about concerns over Huawei.

Italy

No move would be made ot to block the company in the country, the authorities said in February.

Canada

No decision yet about Huawei has been taken by Canada even though the regua;ltors and authorities are contemplating and discussing the risks.

South Korea

The government has allowed the individual carriers to chose their network equipment vendor. Huawei equipment is not used by the two major mobile networks in South Korea – KT and SK Telecom. However Huawei equipment is used by LG Uplus, another cellular network.

Australia

Huawei and ZTE were banned by the Australian gove4rnment in August 2018 from participating in bidding for supplying of equipment for 5G networks.

“Now, the company, the entity that provides that, that maintains it, that has constant access to it, has enormous capability, if it chose to do so, to act adversely to your interest,” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, said about firms that sell 5G equipment.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)

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