Nick Read, CEO of the company, touched on the topic during the quarterly trading update conference call.
Background: European operators have heavily relied on network equipment provided by the Chinese giant Huawei. The recent concerns emerged in many countries about the security of such equipment are leading some regulators to issue explicit bans (Australia, New Zealand) and operators to revise their strategies.
What Read said: The CEO recognised a need to “pause” the use of Huawei equipment in Vodafone’s core network while the company engages with security agencies, government, and Huawei itself. The move will apply to Vodafone’s European networks only.
More facts, less noise if we want 5G. Read clarified the move is not due to any one government’s pressure; but rather down to the excessive “noise” the issue is causing. Read noted that replacing core network elements would not be particularly expensive, but restrictions on the radio access network would result in huge costs, customer disruption, and inevitably delay 5G for the whole European industry. To avoid such bad outcome, a “structured conversation” based on facts is required.
