German telecom operators must quickly remove potentially dangerous Huawei and ZTE systems from their telecom networks by the German government. There are potentially extremely high costs involved in doing so, but telecom operators have used that excuse for too long, Germany’s interior minister says.
According to German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, the dangers that Huawei’s and ZTE’s technology can pose have been known for some time. On top of that, German mobile operators have had plenty of time to take measures for this. Faeser therefore states in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt that it is high time for domestic mobile operators to actually remove these devices from their networks now.
No more excuses
She no longer accepts the excuse from operators that the cost of removal is very high. Germany’s mobile (5G) telecom networks are about 60 percent made up of Huawei and ZTE systems, so the removal could be quite costly.
It isn’t clear whether the minister will force the removal of Huawei and ZTE equipment from Germany’s telecom networks.
Pressure from EU
Faeser’s comments are not entirely out of the blue. The EU has recently been pressuring member states to truly remove telecom equipment from Chinese suppliers from their networks.
As recently as June this year, responsible European Commissioner Thierry Breton stated that Europe could not afford to depend on apprature that could be used as a weapon against the EU.
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