ZCZC
BCN-19
FRANCE-TELECOMS-REGULATION-HUAWEI
France to seek tougher oversight of 5G network gear
PARIS, Jan 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – France will require telecommunications
companies to allow more government oversight and control of the equipment
required for next-generation 5G wireless networks due to security concerns, a
government official said Tuesday.
The move comes as several Western nations have barred China’s Huawei from
participating in contracts for 5G deployment, citing fears Beijing could gain
access to sensitive communications and critical infrastructure.
Guillaume Poupard, head of France’s national cybersecurity agency ANSSI,
said a new law could be enacted soon to “toughen and extend” authorisation
requirements “to be sure we control the entire 5G network”.
But he said approvals would not be refused “because of a company’s image,
or its country of origin”.
“There aren’t good equipment makers on the one hand and bad equipment
makers on the other — unfortunately the situation is much more complex,”
Poupard told AFP on the sidelines of the International Cybersecurity Forum in
Lille, northern France.
The need for oversight is all the more critical since the base stations
and other infrastructure for ultrafast 5G networks are much less centralised
than current 4G systems, he said.
The new network promises nearly instantaneous transfers of huge amounts of
data, paving the way for self-driving cars or remotely accessed sensors in an
array of consumer and health products.
Huawei has invested billions of dollars in the technology, competing
mainly against Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia.
But the United States, Britain and other countries have said Huawei
represents a security risk, not least since its founder Ren Zhengfei is a
former People’s Liberation Army engineer.
BT, Britain’s largest mobile provider, said in December it was removing
Huawei equipment from its 4G cellular network.
Tensions escalated in December after Canada arrested Huawei’s chief
financial officer — Ren’s daughter — on a US arrest warrant over suspected
Iran sanctions violations.
The company’s chairman Liang Hua said at the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday that it would pull out of partnerships in
hostile countries.
“We do not pose a threat to a future digital society,” Liang told
reporters, adding the United States had not put forward any evidence to
justify its claim that Huawei equipment could serve as a Trojan horse for
Beijing’s security apparatus.
But if Huawei gets barred from certain markets and customers start to shun
it, “we will transfer technology partnerships to countries where we are
welcome and where we can have a collaboration”, he added.
BSS/AFP/HR/1020