Parliament adopts anti-Huawei law on 5G

On July 24th 2019, the Parliament passed a law to preserve the interests of the French defense and the national security within the framework of the exploitation of the mobile radio networks. The law n° 2019-810 aims to secure the future strategic facilities that will constitute 5G networks. In fact, the deployment of the new generation of mobile phone standards is closely watched by the authorities who fear a takeover of facilities by the multinational company Huawei, whose links with the Chinese government raise concerns about the possibility of a mass spying. If the United States has simply banned the Chinese company on its territory, France has chosen a median position.

The text requires operators wishing to exploit “hardware or software devices, allowing end-users' terminals to be connected to the mobile radio network” to have their installations validated by the Prime Minister. The list of these devices will be set by the French regulatory authority for electronic communications (Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes - ARCEP). The operating license will only be valid for eight years and must therefore be renewed regularly.

This procedure will be reviewed by the Government before July 1st 2020 in order to assess the impact of such a regime on operators.

The application decrees determining the modalities of application of the law are expected to be issued in the last quarter of 2019, during which period bids will be launched for the frequency bands of the future 5G networks.