Mobile operators and others in the telecoms industry must strike a balance between ensuring network security and spurring network innovation.
As mobile networks grow increasingly complex and the rollout of 5G networks nears, network security has come to be seen as a matter of national security. The issue was brought to the fore by the clash between the U.S. and China, with the Trump Administration charging that Huawei, the world's biggest network equipment maker, is too close to the Chinese government and poses an espionage risk. The U.S. has called upon its European allies to bar Huawei, sparking a broader debate over whether to bar equipment vendors from the market in the interest of national security.
Australia and New Zealand have already stopped operators using Huawei’s equipment in their networks, and the European Commission is considering a de facto ban on Huawei. But telecoms industry leaders in the EU are calling for the U.S. to substantiate its arguments. Huawei denies all allegations.
The global telecoms industry association GSMA has come out publicly against barring Huawei. At its Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Andrew Parker, Programme Marketing Director, Internet of Things at the GSMA, said the group will lobby to protect competition in the supply chain. “The more choice the industry has, the more supply, the better value everyone will get,” he said. “We are going to stick to, and encourage, that line because competition is a good thing for an industry like ours.” European telecoms operators say competition between network vendors is vital to their ability to innovate and seek new ways to grow.
The GSMA represents hundreds of mobile operators worldwide, as well as handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers, internet companies and organisations in adjacent industry sectors.
Acknowledging the need to keep mobile networks safe, the GSMA has instead proposed a stronger testing regime within the European telecoms sector to ensure that, as operators build next-generation 5G networks, smartphones and billions of devices connected to the Internet of Things are protected from hackers, Reuters reports. “We are now moving into intelligent connectivity, which means that more stuff will be connected,” said Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA and former CEO of Sweden’s Tele2. “If we have doubts today, the risk is that those doubts would be magnified going forward.”
“We have always worked with security and we will always continue to work security and network integrity,” Granryd added. “We live from scale, from having a community that can help us propel through innovation, through cost-effective solutions, through quick rollout. “That is our aim, to make sure that we have a healthy supplier base that [is] competing with each other.”
