Telecom Italia is looking to cancel to contract with Huawei for supplying equipment to build part of the telecom firm’s 5G network in the country, reports Reuters citing sources aware of the development.
If the company goes ahead with the plan, then it will be a major blow to the Chinese telecom giant as Telecom Italia is one of Huawei’s biggest clients in Europe. The company has already lost some business to its rivals Nokia and Ericsson.
The development comes as the United States has been pressuring its allies to ban Huawei equipment from their 5G infrastructure, citing a national security risk. However, in the European region, only Britain and Sweden have banned Huawei for 5G.
Now, this new report, citing a source aware of the development, claims that Telecom Italia has sent a letter to Huawei informing its intention to call off the contract. The development was first reported by the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Earlier, the plan of the Italian company was to give the contract to Huawei and Ericsson but later the company split in among three companies by bringing Nokia to the mix. But now it seems that the contract will be split between Nokia and Ericsson.
Huawei was already excluded from the core of the 5G network which is used for processing sensitive data. The new development related to the Chinese giant comes after a review of supply policy, including a cost and benefit analysis, says the report.
RELATED:
