Thread by @ruehlig

1/ Sweden's post & telecoms authority has announced that #Huawei will be excluded from the 5G network. This includes essentially the entire network, including radio access (RAN). This is the most open and most far-reaching option Sweden could have chosen. shorturl.at/cqELX

2/ Not only Huawei, also ZTE products cannot be used. When ZTE/Huawei is used in the existing infrastructure relevant for the frequency bands made available for 5G, such equiptment needs to be replaced by 1 January 2025, the authorities announce.

3/ Until 1 January 2025, operators have to make sure all central functions are located in Sweden and depend on Swedish personnel only. The decision is based on a law that was adopted last year and came into force on 1 January 2020. It allows the security services the exclusion.

4/ Involved is Swedish intelligence (Säpo) and the Swedish Armed Forces. These institutions can ban vendors for reasons of national security. The law is general, has no criteria of what accounts as national security. The authorities say it applies only to central functions, BUT:

5/ Central functions are broadly defined: radio access networks (antennas & base stations), transmission networks (RAN to Core), core networks and operation and maintenance networks for monitoring and control. This is essentially the entire 5G network.

6/ Assessment: ZTE and Huawei are effectively banned in most EU countries, though by different means and to different degrees. Sweden has chosen a particularly explicit and rather comprehensive ban (though not going entirely as far as the UK).

7/ This development implies more RAN market share for Ericsson and Nokia. In the Core, more suppliers will profit. The decision might tackle valid cyber security concerns less than we think. But it reduces overdependence on Chinese tech, which is of geopolitical relevance

8/ As I have demonstrated before in a paper published by @UISweden @ResearchUI, we have No proof that Huawei is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, but we see the loopholes in the company's Governance structure. Find the paper here 👉shorturl.at/ioqzI

9/ If you want to understand why today's decision carries enormous importance in terms of political independence but does not drastically increase cyber security, see my co-authored paper with @MajaBjrk1. A summary is also included in the paper above./ END shorturl.at/fuILV

Sorry, URLs seem not to work. Here are they:
pts.se/sv/nyheter/pre…

ui.se/english/public…

ui.se/globalassets/u…

Thanks for asking and to @ResearchUI responding so quickly!