Portugal’s cybersecurity council CSSC passed a resolution that might prevent telecom operators from utilizing Chinese equipment in their high-speed 5G mobile networks and 4G platforms on which the new technology is based.
The CSSC is the prime minister’s advisory council, and its May 23 document is another blow to Huawei (HWT.UL)’s aspirations to enter Portugal’s 5G market and possibly prolong existing contracts.
The government can establish criteria and timelines for telecom providers to comply with “the exclusion, restrictions on use, or the cessation of use of equipment or services” under an August law.
Due to European and U.S. worries about Chinese involvement in vital infrastructure, the country’s leading operators, Altice, NOS (NOS.LS), and Vodafone (VOD.L), have declared they will not employ Huawei’s equipment in 5G core networks. Huawei and Beijing deny it.
Portugal’s 5G networks use 4G technology and equipment.
The CSSC warned of a “high risk” to security from suppliers or providers that “are headquartered in a country where the government exercises control, interference or pressure on its activities in third countries” without naming China or any Chinese suppliers.
An unpublished report assessed 5G public electronic communications network equipment safety. When a supplier’s country is not an EU, NATO, or OECD member, it poses security problems.
Huawei claimed it had “no prior knowledge of, and hasn’t been consulted about this matter” and was gathering information “on the nature of the assessment” to continue serving Portuguese clients. Ericsson (ERICb.ST) and Nokia (NOKIA.HE) might form a supplier duopoly in Europe if Huawei is barred.
