The French authorities have informed the telecom operators planning to purchase the fifth-generation equipment from the Chinese company Huawei, that they will not be able to renew the equipment licenses once they expire, according to Reuters news agency sources, which will lead to the actual disposal of the Chinese company in the mobile networks.
French cybersecurity agency ANSSI said this month that it would allow operators to use the equipment - including Huawei equipment - under licenses between 3 and 8 years, but added that it urged telecom companies not to use the Chinese company's equipment now, to avoid switching it later.
The sources said that Annecy informed the license operators of large cities of its decision, and the sources said that the duration of the licenses for Huawei equipment was 3 or 5 years, while the operators who use equipment from European competitors such as Ericsson and Nokia, obtained licenses for 8 years.
The sources added that the French authorities also informed the operators during informal talks in recent months - that were not officially mentioned in the documents - that the licenses granted for Huawei equipment will not be renewed after that.
The activation of such restrictions will lead to the actual phase-out of Huawei within French 5G networks by 2028, given the short timeframe for licenses.
It will be difficult for telecom companies to risk investing in Huawei equipment, given that new mobile technology - such as the fifth generation - takes at least 8 years to achieve a return on investment; A source told Reuters: "Giving 3 years amounts to steady refusal."
Annecy's decisions were not made public, either by the agency or companies, and Annecy and Huawei declined to comment to Reuters.
France, like other countries in Europe, is paving the way for the new fifth generation of the mobile market, amid a growing geopolitical storm between two world superpowers, the United States and China.
The United States says the Chinese government may use the company’s equipment to spy - a charge denied by Huawei and Beijing - and pressed its allies to ban it.
Affected French communication companies
The enforcement of the ban will be especially troublesome for Bouygues Telecom and Altice Europe, the two French telecom companies already using Huawei equipment in the existing mobile network.
The new licenses for the 5G network equipment are associated with the existing 4G equipment, which means that if the operator chooses a different supplier for 5G, it will also have to replace the existing 4G infrastructure.
The companies have said several times this year that such a scenario - in which you may have to replace part of its network at a significant cost - will lead it to seek compensation from the state.
The other two main operators in France - Orange and Iliad - rely mainly on Nokia, Ericsson, or both for mobile networks.
The situation is different in Britain, where major telecom groups rely heavily on Huawei technology, which the government has ordered to remove its equipment from the 5G network by 2027.