Like many countries recently, Germany has been considering the supply chain for 5G vendors.
The decision: Germany has decided it will not take a pre-emptive decision to ban any actor, or any company from participating in the supply chain. A so called ‘security catalogue’ foresees an evaluation of technical and other criteria, but that no single vendor would be barred without first undertaking an assessment. Full detailed security guidance on the technical and governance criteria for 5G networks are to be published.
What does the security catalogue require? Network operators will be required to identify and apply enhanced security standards to critical network elements. Certification of critical equipment must be obtained from Germany’s cybersecurity authority, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). This follows rules set back in March 2019 ahead of the drafting of the full set of rules by the regulator BNetzA and the BSI.
What does the situation look like internationally? So far, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the US are countries to have put restrictions in place on the use of Huawei. The UK remains on the fence, but absent of any instruction otherwise, the UK’s mobile operators have been continuing to roll out 5G networks with Huawei’s equipment.
