France: Bouygues Telecom will withdraw 3,000 Huawei antennas by 2028

Bouygues Telecom will withdraw 3—000 — Huawei mobile telephony antennas in France by 2028. STEFAN WERMUTH / AFP

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The restrictions targeting the Chinese supplier Huawei are materializing in France. Bouygues Telecom will withdraw 3,000 Huawei mobile phone antennas in France by 2028, says the operator for security reasons for the future 5G network, and at the request of the French government. Bouygues Telecom considers the eight-year period reasonable but is negotiating financial compensation with the State.

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"  We will no longer have any Huawei antenna in very dense areas  " of French territory by 2028, detailed Olivier Roussat, president of Bouygues Telecom. This involves dismantling 3,000 antennas in eight years, out of the 21,500 currently available to the French operator in France.

This dismantling was requested by the French authorities to secure the future 5G network, while the United States is urging its business partners to give up Chinese equipment , in a context of a trade war with Beijing and suspicion of spying on the Chinese authorities. According to Bouygues Telecom, the eight-year period is reasonable in terms of impact on results, but the group is nonetheless negotiating financial compensation from the State.

Bouygues Telecom, which does not have a Huawei branch in Paris, will have to give it up in other very densely populated areas and those which house strategic, industrial or military infrastructures, such as Brest, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Rennes. In areas of population that are not very dense, said Bouygues Telecom, "  a priori the French state has no contraindication in the use of Huawei equipment  " for 5G.

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