Norwegian Telecom (Telenor) said on the 13th that it will continue to use the equipment of Chinese supplier Huawei in the construction of 5G networks, while adding Sweden's Ericsson company as a 5G supplier.
Telenor
At a press conference on the 13th, Norwegian Telecom President and CEO Sigwe Blake said that the company will transform the network in the next 4 to 5 years, in the process, Norges will continue to use the equipment of existing supplier Huawei to maintain 4G networks and upgrade networks to 5G in some regions.
Blake said Norwegian Telecom had no reason to delay cooperation with Huawei, and he looked forward to continuing cooperation with Huawei. He said at a press conference: "We are very satisfied with the cooperation with Huawei. ”
At the same time, Norges telecom also announced that it will add Ericsson as its 5G equipment supplier. Borle Furberg, CEO of Norwegian Telecom Norway Subnet, said: "As the first 5G mobile network operator in Scandinavia, Nortel will increase the pace of 5G network rollout in 2020. ”
Some media reported that Nortel would exclude Huawei from 5G construction. For example, on the 13th by Reuters, a report titled "Norwegian Telecom chose Ericsson as a 5G supplier and is abandoning Huawei" claimed that Norwegian Telecom said on Friday that it had chosen Sweden's Ericsson as the main technical equipment supplier of Norway's 5G network and would gradually abandon Huawei equipment. Previously, Nortel has been working with Huawei on 4G networks for 10 years.
Reuters reported screenshots on December 13
Furberg, head of Norwegian Telecom Norway, told Reuters that Norway would phase out existing Huawei network equipment during a 4-5 year upgrade period.
However, according to the press release released by the Global Network reporter on the official website of Norwegian Telecom, on whether to use Huawei equipment, Norwegian Telecom's answer is:
"Modernization takes 4 to 5 years. In light of this, Nortel will use existing Huawei equipment to maintain 4G networks and upgrade some selected regions to 5G. This is to ensure that Norwegian Telecom's users have the best user experience and continue to enjoy fast and reliable mobile networks during the modernization process. ”
Source: Press release on The official website of Nortel
Norwegian Minister for Digital Affairs Nikolai Astrup said in an interview with Norwegian online newspaper E24 on the 13th: "If operators choose suppliers from countries or regions that do not have security cooperation with Norway, the equipment of the supplier must not exceed half of the Norwegian base stations." ”
Nortel explained that the reason for maintaining the two suppliers, Huawei and Ericsson, is that the demand for data traffic from users is increasing year by year, and the entire network must be modernized. The retrofit will coincide with the development of 5G and will take about 4 to 5 years.
Nortel is one of the major telecom operators in the Nordic region and also operates in Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries, with more than 100 million subscribers. The company has been working with Huawei for more than 10 years.
In fact, if Norwegian Telecom wants to completely replace Huawei equipment, it is really a "costly and laborious" project. Norwegian current affairs commentator Arild Vollan wrote in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post that 5G networks can be seen as an upgrade to 4G networks. If Norway decides not to use Huawei equipment anymore, all existing 4G network base stations will have to be dismantled and rebuilt, which will bring huge additional costs to Norway's 5G network construction. Norway has 14,000 Huawei base stations, and the cost of dismantling an old Huawei base station and building a new Nokia or Ericsson base station is NOK 600,000, or about $70,500.
According to him, Nortel does not use Huawei equipment in Norway's 4G intranet. The company's mobile network is dominated by U.S. technology, and only Huawei equipment is used in the wireless network, and the United States has not found any evidence of a backdoor in Huawei equipment.
Since last year, the United States has pressured "allies", including Norway, to exclude Huawei from the construction of its own 5G network, and Norges Telecom has added Ericsson as a 5G supplier for a reason.
In February, Norwegian intelligence agency Police Security (PST) claimed that only companies from countries with close security cooperation with Norway should be allowed to offer 5G technology. Norway has such cooperation with neighboring Sweden and Finland, but not with China. The director, Benedicte Bjørnland, also made trumped-up accusations that Huawei's role and the company's ties to the Chinese government must be heeded.
Bjøran (Source: Norwegian Media)
In response to PST and Björan's relevant remarks, the Chinese Embassy in Norway responded at the time that China has always respected Norwegian sovereignty and national security and does not interfere in Norway's internal affairs. There is no conflict of interest between China and Norway, and China does not pose any security threat to Norway. It is absurd for a country's intelligence services to make hypothetical assessments of issues related to its own security and to carry out groundless attacks on China.
On huawei, China once again reiterated that China has always resolutely opposed and cracked down on any form of network theft and attack, and Chinese law does not authorize any institution to force enterprises to install "forced backdoors". Of course, a country has the right to safeguard the country's information security, but it cannot, under the guise of security, parrot and learn from the tongue, follow the crowd, and use false pretexts to damage or even stifle the legitimate operation of enterprises.