Huawei to Build Equipment Factory in France

Huawei Technologies plans to invest €200m to build a network equipment factory for mobile phones in eastern France.

The plant will start operations with roughly 300 employees and grow to around 500 long-term, and will produce kit for the Chinese tech giant’s European client base.

The Shenzhen-based tech firm unveiled plans to build the factory despite a potential crackdown from the French government on using network kit from the Chinese company.

Paris has not banned the company from French networks, but authorities warned tech firms buying Huawei kit they could not renew licenses for them after they expired in a bid to phase them out of national networks.

The news comes after Berlin approved its IT security bill, which gave a conditional approval for Huawei to build German networks but required guarantees their equipment would not be used for spying. The bill must still pass in Parliament.

Washington threatened to stop sharing intelligence with Germany if Berlin failed to block Huawei from its 5G rollout plans. European telecom’s markets have seen several countries launch protectionist measures against Huawei in recent months.

But execs from Deutsche Telekom AG have voiced concerns over such actions, stating that setting political targets on 5G spectrum auctions were blocking the EU’s 5G rollout targets from deploying in a “fast and efficient manner.

The United Kingdom passed a Telecommunications Bill in November imposing heavy fines on national telco’s failing to remove Huawei kit from British networks by 2027 following a blanket ban in July, 2020.

Finland, home to telecom giant Nokia, is also set to pass similar legislation that could potentially ban Huawei as an untrusted vendor from its networks.

Sweden’s Post and Telecoms Authority also excluded Huawei from 5G mid-band spectrum auctions in the country, but the measure was later blocked indefinitely until courts could issue a ruling on the matter.

The Chinese IT giant and numerous mainland tech firms have been targeted by Washington’s campaign to block Beijing from achieving tech dominance in global markets.

Sputnik / ABC Flash Point Communication News 2020.