France won't ban Huawei, but encouraging 5G telcos to avoid it: Report

PARIS: The head of French cybersecurity agency ANSSI has said it would not be completely banned from using Huawei equipment in the rollout of the French 5G Telecoms network, but that it was pressuring French telcos to avoid switching to a Chinese company. "All I can say is that there will be absolutely no ban," Guillaume Poupard told Les Echos in an interview. "(But) for drivers who are not currently using Huawei, we encourage them not to." The U.S. government has urged its rivals not to exclude the Chinese telecoms giant from contacting future Western generations, saying Beijing could use it in surveillance. Huawei has denied the charges. Sources told Reuters in March France that they would not block Huawei but would want to remove it from the primary network, which carries high security risks because it processes sensitive information such as consumer data. France's decision on Huawei's equipment is significant for the country's two mobile operators, Bouygues Telecom and SFR, as nearly half of their current mobile network is made by a Chinese team. "For those who are already using Huawei, we are distributing authorization documents lasting between three and eight years," Poupard said in an interview. Government-owned Orange has already selected European competitors Huawei Nokia and Nokia. Poupard said that since next week, operators who have not received explicit permission to use Huawei equipment on the 5G network may consider not responding after the official deadline as a rejection of their applications. Poupard said the election was meant to protect France's independence, not as an act of hostility towards China. "This is not Huawei's attack or racism against the Chinese," Poupard said. "All we are saying is that risk is not the same for European retailers as it is