The rules of the telecom game in Germany may be changing big time and Deutsche Telekom—that's T-Mobile's parent company—will have to find a new way to keep its Huawei bond intact.
Huawei again
We recently told you that Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, doesn't take the approaching SpaceX threat lightly at all. As you know, Musk's company is trying to become the fourth major telco in the US and that will be a problem not only for the Magenta carrier but also for Verizon and AT&T.
Now, Höttges has something to say about Huawei, the least favorite company of several US administrations. While Huawei phones are officially sold in many EU countries, Huawei has had hard times operating in Europe. The 5G regulations on the old continent are changing constantly and the EU big shots are trying to get rid of almost all Huawei radio equipment.
Deutsche Telekom, Europe's biggest carrier, has relied on Huawei for a large part of its 5G capacity.
While EU officials have previously advised telcos to avoid partnering with "high-risk vendors" (a.k.a. Huawei) for their 5G networks, things are changing fast. The EU might update its CSA (Cybersecurity Act) in a way that makes avoiding Huawei hardware and software altogether (not just from a network's core) a mandatory requirement.
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T-Mobile is big in the US, but its parent company is the biggest carrier in Europe. | Image by PhoneArena
So if the European Commission goes and reclassifies the entirety of the RAN as a critical infrastructure, Deutsche Telekom will have to pour in a very substantial sum of money for new, non-Huawei equipment. That's the last thing any CEO wants to do.
So Höttges warns against that and says, "I'm fighting against it. I think there is no necessity to push that forward."
He argues that decoupling from China might be trickier than some imagine. He says that 80% of the energy market and solar market is now dominated by Chinese vendors and the software for the solar panels is Chinese. "So, is this a security risk for energy supply?" he asks rhetorically.
What's more, he correctly points out that in Europe, there's a "double-digit growth for cars from China now" and that these vehicles are "fully steered with software from China",
He ended his remarks with the obvious statement, "So, I do not know why we are now focusing only on the mobile network here in Germany, where we have no incidents and no kind of access to the infrastructure from the outside".
As far as the eternal question, "Do you still believe that Huawei is a security threat?" I think that fewer and fewer people are buying this. I can't blame them, since "the good guys" in politics have proven to be two-faced, lying conmen, and I say that with all due respect. That's why it's no surprise, as people comment in the above Reddit discussion that Huawei might be a threat, but the three-letter agencies of the US are no good either.
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Sebastian is one of PhoneArena’s senior opinionators. A veteran news writer with almost 20 years of experience in media and technology, he not only covers all the hot news about Galaxies and iPhones, but often provides hot takes on industry trends. He’s fascinated with camera-focused flagships from the likes of Oppo and Vivo, as well as foldable phones.
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