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MILAN, July 20 (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies is
working with Telecom Italia despite being shut out of
a recent tender to supply new generation 5G technology, the
chairman of the Chinese group's Italian unit said in a newspaper
interview.
Luigi De Vecchis said Telecom Italia's (TIM) recent decision
to exclude Huawei from supplying new generation 5G services was
a "commercial" decision, unlike in Britain where he said the
Chinese telecoms group's exclusion from 5G services was a
"geopolitical, not a technological decision".
"We respect the decision (by TIM), which is of a commercial
not a political nature, that concerns one of the many parts of
the network," De Vecchis said in an interview with Corriere
Economia, the weekly business magazine of Corriere della Sera,
published on Monday.
Telecom Italia this month left Huawei out of an invitation
to tender for a contract to supply 5G equipment for core network
infrastructure, where sensitive data is processed, in Italy and
Brazil.
"Of course we're sorry, it's not a party but we continue to
work with TIM as well as with Vodafone and others," De Vecchis
said.
Huawei has played no role in the building of TIM's existing
core network in Italy. However, the Chinese group has been
providing Italy's former phone monopoly with equipment to build
part of its current radio access network, the radios and
antennas that connect smartphones to the mobile network.
The U.S. government has urged allies to exclude Huawei from
their next-generation communications infrastructure because of
the danger it could give China a strategic opening to spy on the
West. Huawei rejects the charges.
Last year Italy passed legislation giving the government
special vetting powers over 5G supply deals between domestic
firms and non-EU providers, including Huawei, but has not gone
as far as to ban the Chinese vendor.
"Italy is dealing with the cybersecurity issue in a
professional manner," De Vecchis said, adding that Europe would
suffer significant damage if it follows U.S. calls to exclude
Huawei.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie, Elvira Pollina, editing by
Gianluca Semeraro and Susan Fenton)
