5G network: Germany places key restriction on Chinese components

 

BERLIN – Germany’s Interior Ministry plans to ban the use of Chinese-made components in critical parts of the country’s public 5G mobile telecommunications networks beginning in 2026, government sources have told dpa.

There are internal disagreements within Germany’s coalition government about the proposed ban, however. Volker Wissing, who leads the Ministry for Digital and Transport, has taken a different view, sources said.

The proposed ban would affect controversial plans to rely partly on components from Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE in building the network. Critics view the involvement of Chinese firms as a potential security risk.

The proposal would ban the use of Chinese parts in the core 5G mobile networks in Germany run by Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica beginning on January 1, 2026. It would apply not only to future parts but also components that have already been installed.

In the “access and transport network,” the “structural dependence on components from manufacturers Huawei and ZTE” would have to be reduced by October 1, 2026, according to the Interior Ministry proposal.

Stricter rules banning even non-critical components from Huawei and ZTE would apply to particularly sensitive areas of Germany, such as the capital Berlin and around the former West German capital of Bonn, which remains home to many government agencies.

In rural regions, where users often complain about a weak mobile network, such restrictions would not apply.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), is pushing the proposal.

A spokesman for the Digital and Transport Ministry, however, told dpa on Wednesday that there has been “no decision by the federal government” on the proposed ban. Wissing, the minister, is a member of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), a junior partner in the coalition.

The spokesman said existing “high standards and strict regulations regarding the use of critical components already apply to the 5G roll-out,” and that the current approach has proven successful.

There are discussions within the government over whether global conditions require further restrictions, the digital ministry spokesman said.

But he added that any new rules should ensure that “a nationwide network of stable, fast and affordable mobile internet remains secure, network operators retain control over their own networks and no dependence is created.”