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Germany will not exclude China’s Huawei Technologies from its 5G mobile network construction despite pressure from the U.S. to cut off the Chinese telecom giant, according to Reuters.
Under newly finalized security rules, Germany will make an evaluation of technical and other criteria for 5G equipment suppliers but to create a level playing field won’t bar a single vendor, Reuters reported, citing government officials. The so-called security catalogue will be published shortly.
"We are not taking a preemptive decision to ban any actor or any company," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a news conference Monday in Berlin.
German operators are all customers of Huawei and have warned that banning the Chinese vendor would add years of delays and billions of dollars in costs to launching 5G networks, according to Reuters.
The Trump administration has targeted Huawei and pressed allies to ban the Chinese company from taking part in local 5G projects, accusing Huawei of spying for the Chinese government. Huawei has denied the allegation.
Several countries including Australia and New Zealand have snubbed Huawei’s offers to build 5G infrastructure. Washington in May included Huawei on an Entity List, effectively barring American companies from doing business with Huawei.
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