EU, UK Telcos Scurry to Make Plans for Huawei Equipment

EU and U.K. telecom operators are scrambling to decide what to do about Huawei gear in their networks despite neither the EU nor the U.K. banning it, officials and consultants said in interviews and reports. Companies face significant costs to replace the equipment and are under pressure to build out 5G networks. Showing the sensitivity of the issue, no stakeholders would speak about the subject on the record in phone interviews.

The EU unveiled a toolbox for mitigating cybersecurity risks in 5G networks. The report doesn't seek a EU-wide ban on any vendor's equipment, but offers "a range of solutions" governments can adopt to boost their oversight of network security, emailed a European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association spokesman. There's "significant uncertainty" about what restrictions, if any, European countries will impose on the use of Huawei equipment, New Street Research found.

European nations are taking different approaches to implementing the toolbox, Strand Consult wrote. Some assign it to telecom regulators, others to military and intelligence services. COVID-19 will force policymakers to reassess the telecom supply chain by focusing attention on infrastructure and its increased importance, with telcos likely to take more responsibility for securing their networks, the consultant said.

Friday, Strand said Huawei should be more transparent. The firm's "notion of ‘transparency’ is to manipulate information and to deter difficult questions from governments, the press, and customers,” the consultant said. The gearmaker didn’t comment on Strand's allegations.

The U.K. has always treated Huawei as a "high risk vendor," National Cyber Security Centre Technical Director Ian Levy blogged. A government telecom supply chain review decided such vendors will be banned from sensitive "core" network functions, and capped at 35% of the access network a high risk vendor can provide equipment for. The review said operators who use Huawei and other high risk vendors should understand the risks and manage them. U.S. lawmakers continue to pressure the U.K. to outlaw Huawei products (see 2003040056).

The U.K. ruling will cost BT 500 million pounds ($572 million) to remove enough equipment to meet the cap, it reportedly said. BT didn't comment further. Vodafone committed to removing Huawei from its European core networks across the EU within five years, but that will cost around 200 million euros ($221 million), CEO Nick Read said. New Street predicted Telefonica Deutschland could be the most exposed if U.K.-like regulation is enacted, followed by Vodafone and Telefonica (Italy).

Huawei doesn't believe its network equipment needs to be removed. "But we respect the decisions of any customers who are feeling government pressure to do so," a spokesman emailed Friday. He stressed BT isn't pulling out any more Huawei equipment than is required by the U.K.'s 35% rule. The gearmaker's equipment "is the most scrutinized equipment in the world" because of where it's headquartered, the representative said. It has a security evaluation center under U.K. government control, and "would challenge any other network operator to put their equipment under the same level of scrutiny and testing," the rep said. Operators and equipment suppliers share responsibility for cybersecurity, he added .