French operators will soon receive the green light to use some of Huawei's equipment for their 5G deployments, reports Reuters citing two unnamed sources. Following tightened procurement rules, mobile networks have been required to seek approval on their choice of supplier, under a new authorisation regime managed by national security agency ANSSI. While the first decisions were expected in February, no official announcement has been issued and the agency declined to comment on the matter.
According to the sources, ANSSI has decided to approve the use of Huawei equipment for non-core parts of 5G networks. This would be consistent with the recommendations of EU commissioner Thierry Breton, who has urged telecom operators to avoid "risky vendors" for strategic sites, such as capital cities and military bases.
ANSSI's first rulings are eagerly awaited by market players and in particular SFR and Bouygues Telecom, as both partly rely on the Chinese equipment maker for their current mobile networks. The agency asked operators additional questions in December with regards to their applications, and this has reportedly caused delays to the process.
In February, the Chinese embassy issued a statement expressing concern over reports in the French press indicating that Huawei could face unfair discrimination under ANSSI’s authorisation regime, for example with permits of a shorter duration than those released for its main rivals, Nokia and Ericsson.
