Telecom Italia (TIM) has decided to exclude Huawei from a lucrative tender to build its 5G core network in both Italy and Brazil, reports Reuters, citing two unnamed sources. The company has invited its current supplier Ericsson as well as Nokia, Cisco, Mavenir and Microsoft-owned Affirmed Networks to bid for the tender, but has so far chosen not to include Huawei on the list of suppliers amid security concerns.
The Italian government is likewise considering whether to exclude the Chinese telecom giant from building the country’s 5G network over spying concerns, prompting Huawei to issue a statement defending its record as a privately-run infrastructure group. “The security and development of digital Italy should be based on an approach grounded in facts and not baseless allegations,” it said.
Although Huawei hasn’t been involved in building of TIM’s existing core network in Italy, it has supplied 4G equipment for the core network of TIM Brasil and even conducted 5G tests with the company at the end of last year ahead of the country's forthcoming 5G spectrum auction.
