Germany: A New Telecommunications Bill

Chancellor Merkel’s cabinet has backed a bill that conditionally allows Huawei to supply technology in supporting German 5G infrastructure.  

While other countries including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the United States of America, have taken a hard stance on excluding Huawei’s involvement in their telecommunications infrastructure, Germany’s position remained somewhat nebulous until Wednesday the 16th of December. Chancellor Merkel’s cabinet agreed upon a new law that would enforce strict quality control checks for telecommunications providers. Should Huawei pass these checks, the company would conceptually be allowed to proceed with supplying Germany technology for a 5G rollout. The bill does make clear Germany's right to block Huawei from participating in the telecoms market on national security grounds. 

The German authorities’ power to deny Huawei’s involvement in the 5G rollout is expanded upon by a strict quality control system. Huawei will be required to carefully explain how their technology will be implemented into German infrastructure. If, at any point, the authorities find the technology to be in conflict with the public interest, primarily concerns about security, then the authorities reserve the right to disallow the use of Huawei technology.  

These checks will operate in addition to a written guarantee stipulating that the telecoms company is certain that their products do not lend themselves to terrorism, sabotage or espionage. Should Huawei know at any point of deficiencies in their technologies that would lend themselves to any of the listed uses, then they are also required to report them to the authorities. Failure to report any such deficiencies can entail a strict ban on the use of Huawei technology for German 5G infrastructure.  

Steffen Seibert, spokesman to Chancellor Merkel, has described the act as being ‘in principle about our IT security and not about individual manufacturers’. However, the tentative formulation of the new law has been subject to criticism. Noah Barkin, a researcher at the think tank Rhodium Group, notes that ‘unlike the legislation we’ve seen in other European countries like the UK or Sweden, it doesn’t send a clear signal about whether the German government intends to make full use of this power’.  

The full implications of the law are yet to be realised as it remains a bill.  

By Brighton Dube