Forced Huawei removal leads anger in French telecom operators, reached court

Two major French telecom operators are now heading toward the court to demand the cost of forcefully removing Huawei equipment from the network across the country.

As reported by French media L’Informe, the two operators – SFR and Bouygues are preparing to take the French government to court in an attempt to get all of the compensation for removal cost.

In a filing to the Administrative Court of Paris, Bouygues Telecom said that its costs amounted to roughly €82 million, though notes that this does not cover the entirety of the 3000 towers it said will need to be re-equipped by 2028.

However, SFR remained silent on its expenses, while it’s observed to own around 8000 affected. Therefore, its claim will be bigger than Bouygues’s.

Led by US:

After banning Huawei in 2019, the US took on partners around the globe to restrict Huawei from their own network. This includes France. However, the country refused to go hand in hand on this matter.

Instead, the country took its own route to restrict Huawei from some parts of the network infrastructure. With the 2019 Constitutional Council ruling, the government ordered its operators to remove Huawei equipment in densely populated and strategically important areas.

“This new law also stipulated that any new or renewed mobile equipment licenses would need to be given the green light by ANSSI, France’s cybersecurity agency. Not long after this announcement, ANSSI indicated that it was unlikely to give such permission for Huawei equipment, in effect issuing a de facto ban on the vendor’s technology by 2028.”

After the step, many of the business entities opposed the new law but were refuted by the French Justice system in 2021. However, the same law doesn’t even talk about the impact or compensation for the French operators.

On the matter of forceful Huawei removal, French telecom operators came come on the table to put sound up their own voices.

(Via)