Stockholm, November 3. Recently, the Swedish Postal and Telecommunications Administration (PTS) announced the conditions for the country’s 5G spectrum auction to be held on the 10th of this month, citing so-called “national security” as an excuse to explicitly request any participation.
Operators of 5G spectrum auctions are not allowed to use the equipment of Chinese 5G equipment suppliers Huawei and ZTE. The equipment of the two enterprises in use will be removed before 2025.
Sweden is one of the few European countries that have announced restrictions on 5G equipment from Chinese manufacturers. It has abused the concept of “national security” and used administrative means and state power to exclude and suppress certain Chinese companies.
According to an article in the internationally renowned journal Diplomat, Sweden’s restrictions on Huawei are one of the strongest among all countries.
At the end of January this year, the European Union formally adopted a “toolbox” for dealing with 5G network security risks, and proposed a series of measures to strengthen 5G security from a strategic and technical perspective, but did not prohibit Chinese companies from participating in the construction of 5G networks in Europe.
After the announcement, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that without any evidence, the Swiss side used national security as an excuse to groundlessly discredit Chinese companies
Openly suppress Chinese telecommunications companies, and politicize normal economic cooperation. This approach goes against the principles of free, open, fair, and non-discriminatory market economy pursued by Sweden, and also violates international economic, trade and investment rules.
For a long time, Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE have actively participated in international communication technology cooperation and made positive contributions to the construction of Sweden’s communication infrastructure.
Unwarranted accusations against Chinese companies for unwarranted reasons and discriminatory exclusion of Chinese companies from fair market competition are not only detrimental to the high-quality and efficient construction of Sweden’s 5G network, but also low efficiency and high costs due to lack of competition. The huge cost of mobile operators forced to replace existing equipment under the administrative order will be paid by the Swedish people.
Faced with repeated questions by the media, Swedish cybersecurity experts were unable to produce any evidence of security vulnerabilities in 5G equipment from Chinese suppliers.
Swedish National Television reported on October 16 that none of the Swedish operators interviewed believed that Huawei’s equipment had security problems.
“At present, Huawei’s equipment is widely used in Swedish mobile operators’ networks, and Huawei’s equipment is ordered to be removed from the country’s 5G network, which will bring huge changes to local mobile operators.”
The media also pointed out in subsequent reports, Huawei, Nokia, and Ericsson are the three major suppliers of 5G equipment in Europe. After Huawei is excluded, Sweden has only two options: Nokia and Ericsson. This will trigger discussions on the lack of competition in the market.
Chinese ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou published a signed article on the Swedish mainstream media “Today Industry” on the 1st, saying that 5G is not Huawei’s original creation, nor is Huawei’s soloist, but the product of Huawei’s cooperation with Swedish Ericsson, Finland Nokia and other multinational companies.
It is the competition and cooperation of multinational companies such as Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia that have promoted the rapid development of today’s 5G technology.
If any one or two of Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia and other related companies are excluded, it will not only affect the technical level of 5G network construction, but also slow down the global 5G construction process, greatly increase the cost of 5G construction in various countries, and cause consumers to suffer economic losses.
In contrast to Sweden’s openly suppressing Chinese companies, most European countries have built a 5G ecosystem with an open and cooperative attitude. The Norwegian Telecom Company said in December that it will continue to use Huawei equipment in the construction of the 5G network, while adding Ericsson as a 5G supplier.
Finnish operator Elisa announced in December that it had opened 5G networks in Finland, including the capital Helsinki, and Huawei was one of its 5G equipment suppliers. Timo Haraka, Minister of Transport and Communications of Finland, stated that Finnish network legislation does not clearly specify any equipment vendors, and the starting point of this law has always been to protect the national security of the network.
The 5G era is an era of global interconnection. Only by following the market principles of open development and fair competition can we achieve a win-win situation for all parties, and make new technologies faster, more efficient, and lower-cost to benefit the world, including the Swedish people.
Sweden, which has always been characterized by an open and export-oriented economy, must follow the trend of the times and provide global companies including Chinese companies with an open, fair, fair and non-discriminatory competitive environment, rather than abuse the concept of “national security” and manipulate the market The free competition of the country goes further and further on the road of isolation.
