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Finland, home of Nokia, may lock out Huawei, ZTE under new 5G security law
- While there is profit to be made from markets where its main Chinese 5G rivals are excluded, Nokia risks being shunned in China
- Nokia said it has won about 43 per cent of the value of deals created since several countries banned certain vendors from their mobile networks
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Finland, the home market of 5G equipment maker Nokia, is set to introduce a new telecommunications law, which may be used to exclude China’s Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp from its mobile networks.
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Finland’s parliament is expected to approve the bill designed to protect its mobile networks against cyber threats and espionage in a session expected to start at 2pm on Monday in Helsinki.
The proposed legislation names no specific companies or countries, but bans equipment “within the network’s key assets if there are strong grounds to suspect the use of such equipment would endanger national security or defence”.
“We aren’t pointing fingers at any one party,” Johannes Koskinen, a lawmaker from the ruling Social Democratic Party, said by phone when asked whether the law was directed specifically at Chinese companies. “We should ensure we don’t take action that closes doors for Nokia as a result of any backlash,” he said.
In neighbouring Sweden, where telecoms gear maker Ericsson is based, a similar, more strongly-worded law has caused a spat with China.
For Nokia, the proposed law is a mixed picture. While there is profit to be made from mobile networks where its Chinese rivals are excluded, the Finnish company risks being shunned in China, a huge market for 5G network equipment.
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