Germany To Remove Huawei From Mobile Networks

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The German government and mobile phone carriers have agreed in principle on steps to phase components by Chinese technology companies out of the nation's 5G wireless network over the next five years, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. Newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung as well as broadcasters NDR and WDR earlier jointly reported the news, saying the agreement gives network operators Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, and Telefonica Deutschland more time to replace critical parts. Under the preliminary agreement driven by security considerations, operators will initially rid the country's core network of 5G data centers of technology made by companies such as Huawei and ZTE in 2026, said the sources, adding that a final pact has yet to be signed. In a second phase, the role of Chinese makers' parts for antennas, transmission lines and towers should be all but eliminated by 2029, they added. "The government is acting on the basis of the national security strategy and China strategy to reduce possible security risks and dependencies," said a spokesperson for Germany's interior ministry.

What are the options?

[double_u_b]

Are US device more secure? I think Europe should only consider european devices, so it might be too soon... US have proven being actively spying Europe, especially to undermine European economy in the past (thinking of Boeing vs Airbus and the spying of governement phones only for unfairly stole markets - or backdoors found in US network devices, or the manipulations of US to kill nokia at its very best). Now that China is better than US in tech development and production, they want to lock European market

Re:

[LazarusQLong]

let's be honest here for a moment, the French and Germans (among others) have been caught doing the exact same thing to the USA, so let's just decide on what the solution should be to everyone's issues here.

I agree that probably the best solution, because truthfully no nation can trust another nation 100%, is that each nation should develop their own software development and manufacturing prowess in this area. Is that going to happen? Who Knows, I know, for example, that the USA used to buy almost only N

Re: What are the options?

[SuperDre]

Yep, you're right. And you know who is pushing these european governments into replacing the Huawei hardware? Yep, the US, pointing fingers that the Huawei hardware might have backdoors, but not actually proving it. And you know what else? The US wants Huawai hardware out as it doesn't contain backdoors for US 'intelligence'services but the US has big trouble hacking the Huawei hardware as it is actually f-ing secure. I say, before wasting taxpayers/customers money, first prove it has backdoors for chinese

Is there any US 5G hardware?

[_merlin]

The biggest vendors after Huawei are European companies, e.g. Nokia. US companies aren't major players in that space.

"over the next 5 years"?????????

[LazarusQLong]

why bother, anything the Chinese wanted, by that time they have taken.

Re: "over the next 5 years"?????????

[spinitch]

Supply Chains Are among the risks. Germany learned the hard way buying from Russia fuel. Maybe seems like overreaction for telecom equipment but they want to invest in suppliers from nations that support their ideals. This includes not supporting Russian aggression. Ironically China has its border issues with Russia too. The downside is further decoupling from China might embolden them since less to lose. Europe should trade with China, EVs better than telecom with suspicious ties to China military.

Re:

[LazarusQLong]

I agree with all your points, but I disagree that any company in China does NOT have ties to the Chinese military. Some ties may be of lesser importance, but I do believe they all are there, plus, we have to recall that there seem to be a bunch of 'student organizations' or 'patriotic organizations' that do the work of the Chinese Military, that are often ignored.

A better solution

[Baron_Yam]

Competition is to be expected - and in international relations, that will include spying and sabotage where players feel they can get away with it and an advantage is to be gained. Cooperation is efficient, but requires trust that can't be maintained when it is expected that it will be abused.

The solution isn't necessarily to fragment hardware and software so that every sovereign entity has its own unique solution - I think a multinational effort where an entirely open hardware platform is designed and an

Re:

[double_u_b]

Yes, I am a big fan of that kind of solution: to have labelized open hardware designs, with communication between parts well defined, so that any manufacturer can create a compatible part. It could start with simple devices like washing machines, dish washers, oven, mowers, ...

Re:

[Baron_Yam]

It bugs me that we don't have a wiring standard for IoT that would result in a hardware connector you could plug a communications block of your choosing into pretty much anything and have it talk to your network. Your fridge doesn't need to report temperature and power consumption... But if you could click in a little chipset that would take that info to do what you want with it, that would be a nice option.

Everything out there is proprietary and needs the vendor's server to connect you to a phone app. Wi

Is Huwawei that evil?

[Fons_de_spons]

I remember an article in the newspaper discussing this when Belgium was asked to remove (rather new) Huwawei equipment.
The reporter argued that Huwawei went through all efforts to show their equipment was not spying. They i. e. gave access to the software code. They did their best.
US companies refused this transparency. Also the US was exposed to spy massively on... everyone and probably only expanded that operation ever since.
Nato headquarters is here, so the equipment was swapped swiftly under serious US pressure.
The optimist in me thinks that the US has convincing evidence that China is abusing its hardware and that China covers it up well. The pessimist sees a country that wants to snoop in on everything to control the world.
Pretty sure Trump would completely abuse that power if it makes him look good in the mirror. I hope they have the Huwawei equipment still lying around just in case.