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Leading telecoms executives across Europe have raised the alarm over EU plans to ban Chinese equipment makers such as Huawei and ZTE from the bloc’s networks, warning the move would drive up costs at a time when operators are already stretched.
Under its Digital Networks Act, unveiled in January, the European Union is proposing to ban suppliers classified as “high risk” on cybersecurity grounds.
The Act avoids naming Chinese companies directly, but once a supplier is designated as high-risk, telecoms operators would have a three-year window to remove its equipment from their networks.
The plan is the latest in a string of measures reflecting cooling trade ties between Brussels and Beijing.
In an open letter, the Connect Europe lobby group — representing telecoms operators — argued that the Cybersecurity Act “risks draining the sector of the very capital needed for fibre, 5G and 6G” infrastructure.
The letter was signed by 17 senior executives, among them the chief executives of Orange (France), Deutsche Telekom (Germany) and Telefónica (Spain).
While also stopping short of naming China specifically, the signatories estimated that a blanket ban on suppliers from outside the EU could saddle the industry with as much as €40 billion in replacement costs.
The proposal is now being thrashed out between the European Parliament and the governments of the EU’s 27 member states.
It follows a 2023 push by the European Commission urging countries to strip Huawei and ZTE from their mobile networks over security concerns — an appeal that yielded only patchy results.
Where Europe stands on Huawei
Progress among EU and wider European countries has been uneven. As of a few years ago, just 10 countries in the bloc had excluded Chinese hardware makers from their networks following the Commission’s recommendation, even though almost all member states had put a regulatory framework in place, with only a handful, such as Sweden and Latvia, actually enforcing restrictions.
Sweden was among the earliest and firmest movers, with its telecoms regulator banning the use of Huawei and ZTE equipment in its 5G network ahead of a spectrum auction, a decision later upheld by an appeals court.
France took a softer, phased approach, declining to renew operators’ licences for Huawei gear as they expire, effectively easing the company out over time, while Romania and Estonia passed legislation in 2021 that in practice barred Chinese vendors from their networks.
Outside the EU, the United Kingdom went further, ordering Huawei equipment to be purged from its 5G network entirely. Denmark also introduced investment-screening powers partly in response to security concerns over a Huawei bid.
Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, has moved more cautiously, agreeing with its major operators to remove Huawei and ZTE components from 5G core networks by the end of 2026, with broader access and transport-network components to follow by 2029 — a timeline critics say still leaves the country exposed for years to come.
Additional sources • AFP