Despite clear demands from the Norwegian government and several reports of concern regarding safety concerns related to the use of Chinese technology, the Chinese telecom giant Huawei is still responsible for most of the equipment used for the development of the 5G network in Bergen, Norway and that is a cause for concern.
Experts believe that if they want, the technology can be controlled from China, Bergens Tidende writes quoting Bergensavisen and Nettavisen.
Telenor is behind the development in collaboration with Huawei and through source work, Nettavisen and Bergensavisen now report that Telenor’s 5G network in Bergen will be expanded with a technology Telenor itself says they will remove during 2024, for security reasons.
By 2022, it will all be finished, and according to Telenor’s technology director Ingeborg Øfsthus, the technology will be replaced with technology from Swedish Ericsson by then. She maintains that Telenor is far below the 50 percent limit when it comes to using Huawei.
“What they say is relatively in line with what emerges in the threat assessment to the Norwegian security authorities, and these are things we use as a basis when we plan the security architecture in our network. We have strict security requirements for the solutions we choose when we build the network,” she answers.
The demand to use other than Huawei as the main partner for the development came from the Norwegian government on 13 December 2019, even though the company had built infrastructure in both Eastern Europe and Asia, with great commercial success.
Huawei Norway maintains that safety is their top priority and that deliveries have been thoroughly tested by independent parties.
No proof, no evidence. Way to go, Norway.