Huawei Dodges German 5G Ban Despite US-Led Campaign

The U.S. government’s years-long campaign to remove and preclude Huawei’s equipment from mobile networks is now formally unrequited in Europe’s largest economy. Germany today declined to ban any vendors from participating in the design and buildout of 5G mobile networks. Earlier this year U.S. government officials took an especially heavy-handed approach to Huawei with respect to its inclusion in networks operating in countries that are allied with the United States. Germany was singled out and informed that the U.S. government would limit intelligence sharing with the country if Huawei is allowed to be part of Germany’s 5G infrastructure. Germany responded in a predictably robust fashion to the perceived threat as it bristled over U.S. efforts to impose its will on 5G security standards in sovereign nations. Indeed, German operators Vodafone Germany and Deutsche Telekom both recently launched 5G networks in that country using Huawei equipment even before the new guidelines were formalized by German regulators.