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For Anssi, it is logical that the State wants to control the way in which operators will deploy their 5G. According to the agency, Huawei equipment is more risky, while it promises first deployment authorizations in February.
A few days ago, we returned to the disenchantment that French telecom operators have with the “Huawei law”, a text that weighs down the deployment of new infrastructures for the mobile network, while 5G is in the starting blocks. In fact, the National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi) must now give its approval before any physical installation, which adds additional administrative complexity and slows down work accordingly.
In practice, no equipment has been ruled out for the moment, but operators are concerned that those stamped with Huawei are prohibited. For Bouygues Telecom and SFR, which – in part – built their existing networks with Huawei hardware, this could create compatibility concerns. While at Orange and Free Mobile, we are concerned that the prices of Ericsson and Nokia equipment will skyrocket if those of the Chinese equipment supplier (very competitive) are banned.
To all this, operators also fear that Anssi – which has two months to respond to their requests – will play the watch on behalf of the government, delaying the first large investments in deployment so as not to start their envelope for auctions allocation of 5G frequencies to be held in March.
Security and sovereignty: the role of the state
It is in this complex context that Guillaume Poupard, Director General of Anssi, gave a long interview to our colleagues echoes. First, it considers it necessary in view of the challenges that the State is interfering in the deployment of the future network with a security approach. His position on the matter is quite clear: “If we leave the operators to do everything alone, security and sovereignty issues will not be taken into account.” He cites the British example where operators were able to deploy their networks unattended and where the result would be “Catastrophic, especially in terms of security”.
One of his fears is that a network made up of foreign equipment could be listened to, but also simply cut: “Tomorrow, all companies will use the 5G network. If it malfunctions, it will pose monstrous security and economic problems. We don't want to be dependent on people who could cut our telecom networks. In three or four years, cutting 5G will cut power in terms of impact ”.
Huawei, higher risk
Why did Huawei become the target? According to Guillaume Poupard, there is a greater risk with Chinese equipment, manufactured by a company on which government pressure can be exerted. “I know that a member country of the European Union is not going to put pressure on Nokia or Ericsson to shut down the networks in France”, he adds. Despite everything, he recognizes that “Imagine solving the 5G security issue by saying ‘Don't buy Huawei, buy Nokia and Ericsson’, it's a bit naive ”. This does not prevent it from considering as plausible a scenario in which French operators using equipment deemed dangerous would be given a transition period to replace them.
As for the charges of procrastination of Anssi, the director sweeps them away: “We have two months to respond from the filing of the complete application. Sometimes, some people forget to fill in boxes, we are not mean, we help them (…) If we had wanted to save time, we would simply have dragged our feet to take the decree to the law on the security of mobile networks. However, we quickly adopted this decree ”. The first authorizations (or refusals) should fall during the month of February, promises Guillaume Poupard.
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