German reliance on Huawei has grown in 5G era, report says

The history books might not be kind to Angela Merkel. During the roughly 16 years she spent as Germany’s chancellor, she was often hailed as a level-headed, compassionate and wise politician in an era of firebrands and opportunists. These days, she is the woman who allowed Germany to become gas-dependent on Russia and telecom-reliant on China.

Bequeathed that legacy, Olaf Scholz, her successor, moved swiftly to crush and dump Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline like an empty can of pilsner. But despite a western backlash against Chinese vendors, Huawei’s presence in Germany’s mobile networks remains strong, and it has increased with the transition from 4G to 5G technology.

It is one of the headline findings of a new investigative report by Strand Consult, shared with Light Reading ahead of publication next week. In 2020, the Danish advisory firm exposed how reliant many European countries had become on Chinese equipment vendors for their 4G services. The data appalled critics of Huawei and ZTE. If those companies could exert as much control over the emerging 5G market, China would conceivably be able to bring down critical infrastructure and systems based on the new-generation technology, warned China’s opponents. Yet Strand Consult’s latest report shows their nightmare scenario has come to pass.

The findings may surprise more than a few onlookers while horrifying US hawks. Several European governments and operators have imposed strict limits on Huawei and ZTE, just as the US has hit them with several sanctions. Combined with a 29% drop in Huawei’s revenues last year, that created the perception that Chinese suppliers were struggling to retain as much as a regional foothold.

But while there have been a few successful attempts to evict Huawei, they are confined to smaller countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Baltic states, accounting for less than 3% of the European customer base. At the same time, some of the region’s biggest mobile markets and economic powerbrokers have done little or nothing to rid themselves of Huawei.

‘Huawei can switch us off’

From Strand Consult’s perspective, Germany is the chief worry because of its population size and economic and strategic importance. In its 2020 report, the Danish firm calculated that 57% of Germany’s 4G radio access network (RAN) products were supplied by “non-trusted vendors” – which in this case meant Huawei. Regarding 5G in December 2022, the corresponding percentage is 59%.

The Merkel rationale seemed to be that Germany could mitigate any security concerns by keeping Chinese vendors out of the network’s core, the control center. Deutsche Telekom, the incumbent, shifted to Ericsson as its main core network vendor and began trialing a 5G “standalone” core from Mavenir, a smaller US vendor. But telecom executives and security experts who have spoken with Light Reading say the RAN is not impervious to a cyberattack.

To read the complete article, visit Light Reading.