HELSINKI — As the Trump administration puts pressure on Chinese telecom giant Huawei to block its dominance in developing future 5G networks, small European competitors are pitching themselves as more secure alternatives.
Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri in the past has boosted Nokia’s more secure products and hinted Huawei’s failure would be Nokia’s ultimate gain. Those bets appear to be paying off. On May 29, Nokia and Ericsson won a major 5G contract with Japanese electronics conglomerate SoftBank Corp., a major blow to Huawei.
Nokia also advertises a small, trusted supply chain, meaning it makes the most of its products itself or purchases hardware or software from only a few trusted vendors. In the U.S., major defense contractors are increasingly concerned about the tens of thousands of companies that manufacture components of major technology — a security issue recently raised by the U.S. intelligence community. Communications networks are subject to similar concerns.
The politics are one of the reasons that many smaller European nations have declined to take a firm stance against Huawei, despite repeated urging from the Trump administration. Germany’s telecommunications regulator has refused to block Huawei. The United Kingdom has demanded source code access and technical compliance to manage the risk posed by foreign providers like Huawei. Some countries are testing partial bans, or leaving it up to the telecoms to decide. Skeptical politicians and industry experts have demanded concrete evidence that Huawei has done anything wrong.
Swedish defense minister Peter Hultqvist in an interview on cybersecurity and 5G emphasized the importance of “maintaining control” over critical infrastructure. “It’s always important to have security around important properties,” he told Yahoo News. He did not comment specifically on the U.S. call for a Huawei ban.
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