Royal Dutch Telecom Group (KPN) said Thursday (Oct. 15) that it has chosen Sweden’s Ericsson to build the core elements of its 5G mobile network. The company decided last year not to use Huawei’s equipment.
KPN said in a statement Thursday that it “will work with Ericsson” to implement its core 5G technology. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
The company said in April 2019 that it would choose a Western vendor to build its core 5G mobile network. That makes it one of the first European operators to phase out Huawei. Huawei is the world’s largest supplier of telecom equipment and smartphones.
Washington has expressed concern that if KPN’s 5G backbone included Huawei equipment, it would be vulnerable to covert surveillance by the Chinese government.
While KPN excluded Huawei from its 5G network in the Netherlands, Orange and Proximus in Belgium also excluded Huawei, choosing Nokia to help build Belgium’s 5G network.
Chinese 5G providers Huawei and ZTE are “high-risk” companies that pose a security threat to European networks, more than 40 prominent members of the European Parliament said Wednesday in a letter to EU telecoms ministers and senior European Commission officials.
The Trump administration has been lobbying U.S. allies and partners, especially in Europe, not to use Huawei’s equipment.
Huawei is effectively banned in the United States. The U.S. also launched what Washington calls a “clean network” initiative in April, and expanded it in August, to remove “untrusted and unapproved” Huawei equipment from five major areas: carriers, mobile apps, app stores, network cloud services and undersea cables. “Chinese equipment and technology products.
More than 40 countries and 50 telecommunications companies have joined the clean network, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press conference at the State Department on Wednesday.
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