Germany isn’t banning Huawei from its 5G network, but Sweden still could

Written by Scott Bicheno
14 October 2019 @ 17:06

The German government will not prevent any networking vendor from being used in the country’s 5G network but the Swedes may not be so accommodating.

The German news comes courtesy of Reuters, which attended a press conference in which the government announced the results of its security review. “We are not taking a pre-emptive decision to ban any actor, or any company,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert is quoted as saying.

As the biggest European economy and effective leader of the European Union, Germany’s decision has a symbolic significance beyond just going against the wishes of the US. Germany and the EU are effectively declaring their independence from the US on geopolitical matters and asserting their desire to make decisions based solely on their own interests.

Opinion is still divided across the broader bloc, however, with Swedish publication SVT reporting on a proposed new law that will allow Huawei and other Chinese vendors to be blocked from the country’s 5G network. The law seems to only be at the proposal stage right now, and all manner of conflicting political interests will be brought to bear on it, but if it goes through the matter of China and 5G could end up being a major schism within the European Union.