The Italy-based unit of Vodafone has received conditional approval from Rome to use the equipment made by the world’s leading telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei in its 5G radio access network, reports Reuters.
As per the sources aware of the development, the government of national unity led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi has authorized the deal between the two companies — Vodafone and Huawei, on 20th May.
The government has reportedly imposed a set of prescriptions, including restrictions on remote intervention by Huawei to fix technical glitches and an extremely high-security threshold, adds the report based on sources.
Italy can block or impose tough conditions on deals involving non-European vendors under “golden powers.” So far, the golden powers have been used three times since 2012 to block foreign interest in industries deemed to be of strategic importance.
The development comes at a time when the United States has banned Huawei in its country and is also lobbying its allies, including Italy and other European countries to block Huawei from participating in the deployment of next-generation 5G infrastructure. The US government is citing national security risk as a reason behind sanctions against China-based companies like Huawei and ZTE, among others.
However, Italy has not banned Huawei entirely from the 5G infrastructure but has adopted a tougher stance against the company. Previously, Rome had prevented telecoms group Fastweb in October from signing a deal with Huawei to supply equipment for its 5G core network, where highly sensitive data is processed.
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