Germany has delayed until next year a decision on security rules for Germany’s 5G network that could bar China’s Huawei, a highly divisive issue in an unhappy alliance, reported Reuters.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, under pressure from the United States to bar Huawei, wants to toughen up technical certification and scrutiny of telecoms equipment suppliers, without excluding any specific country or vendor.
Social Democrat (SPD) lawmakers on Tuesday backed an internal proposal that, if adopted by the government, could effectively translate into shutting out Huawei.
“I think we will have a solution in January,” said SPD lawmaker Jens Zimmermann. “We will have a common blueprint and it will be considerably more severe.”He was referring to rules for the build-out of 5G mobile networks finalized by Merkel’s government in October that foresaw an evaluation of technical and other criteria and was largely interpreted as keeping the door open to Huawei.