France will not impose an outright ban on Huawei’s 5G equipment, but will avoid complete dependence on the Chinese company’s technology, the head of the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI has said, reported Caixin.
“What I can say is that there will not be a total ban,” Guillaume Poupard said in a recent interviewwith local media Les Echos. “But for operators that are not currently using Huawei gear, we are urging them not to,” he added.
Government permits with durations from three to eight years are being granted to French carriers that are already using Huawei equipment in their 5G networks, Poupard said. He added that from next week, those that have not received authorization can consider the lack of response as a rejection of their request after the legal deadline.
The ANSSI head stressed that the decision was made to protect French independence and not as “Huawei bashing or anti-Chinese racism.”