Portugal and Spain are set to launch commercial 5G services next year. Portugal and Spain both have resisted calls from the US to ban Huawei from their 5G network infrastructure, according to reports in the press.
The South China Morning Post reported that Portugal’s foreign minister Augusto Santos told the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, that bids would be assessed on a case by case basis. Portugal’s biggest telco, Altice Portugal, has already partnered with Huawei for the development of its 5G networks, which it hopes to launch next year.
The US is currently asking its allies in the European Union to exclude the Chinese tech giant from their 5G network rollout plans. The US government alleges that Huawei’s network technology, which is the most widely used in the world, is too easily hackable and could be used to conduct act of state-sponsored espionage. Huawei categorically refutes these allegations and the US is yet to furnish its allies with any proof of its allegations.
Despite this, the US is ramping up the pressure on European governments to shun Huawei. Yesterday, UK prime minister appeared to wobble under US pressure as he said that the UK would look to revisit its stance on Huawei after the forthcoming general election. Huawei is already involved in the initial 5G rollouts of operators in the UK, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
