Bouygues Télécom will withdraw by 2028 3,000 Huawei mobile telephony antennas in very densely populated areas at the request of the French government, for security reasons of the future 5G network, the telecom operator said Thursday when presenting its results half-yearly.
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" We will no longer have any Huawei antenna in very dense areas " by 2028, explained Olivier Roussat, the president of Bouygues Telecom, during a conference call with the boss of Bouygues Martin Bouygues. This involves dismantling 3,000 antennas, he explained.
Financial compensation requested from the State
Bouygues Telecom has a total of around 21,500 branches today on the national territory, according to group figures. " It is a dismantling that will be treated over a period of eight years " which is " quite reasonable in terms of financial impact on our operating results ", he said. Bouygues is negotiating with the State for financial compensation for the obligation to dismantle the existing Huawei antennas in very dense areas, and the impossibility of installing new ones in these places, he recalled.
Huawei, number two in the world in mobile phones and above all number one in 5G equipment, is in the crosshairs of the United States, which suspects it of potential espionage for the benefit of Beijing. The Trump administration is pressuring allied countries to give up using its equipment. At the beginning of July, the national agency responsible for computer security in France had announced that it would severely restrict the operating licenses of French operators who are partners of the group. The latter then mentioned the need to dismantle their current equipment in the event of incompatibility with those of other manufacturers.
In detail, Bouygues Telecom, which does not already use Huawei antennas in Paris, will not be able to use Huawei antennas for 5G in Strasbourg, Brest, Toulouse and Rennes, the operator explained. In these cities there are strategic installations for France, such as the military port and a nuclear submarine base in Brest, the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, or key operational cybersecurity centers in Rennes.
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In four other cities that it did not mention, Bouygues Telecom will be able to continue using Huawei antennas for 5G until 2023. For another package of nine cities, the deadline is extended to 2025, while on the rest of the very dense area, it is increased to 2028. In areas which are not very dense areas, " a priori the French State has no contraindication in the use of Huawei equipment " for the 5G, said Rossat.
