According to Light Reading, two French operators have already begun the painful process of stripping Huawei equipment from their networks. Previously, they had tried to challenge France to adopt stricter security policies for future 5G networks through legal channels, but failed.

France has not explicitly prohibited the use of equipment from Chinese suppliers such as Huawei in 5G networks.

However, the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI has set a very high threshold for 5G licensing.  The purpose seems to allow Huawei to continue as a supplier, but exclude it from the more sensitive parts of the network at the same time.

In February of this year, the French Constitutional Council supported the passage of the so-called “Anti-Huawei Law”, which forces operators to remove Huawei’s 4G equipment when upgrading their networks to 5G in densely populated areas.

According to Bloomberg, France’s Bouygues Telecom and Altice Europe’s SFR have started to dismantle Huawei’s equipment in early 2021. According to data provided by consulting firm Strand Consult last year, about half of SFR and Bouygues Telecom’s mobile services use Huawei equipment.

Bouygues Telecom stated that by 2028, the company will need to remove 3,000 Huawei antennas in areas with very high population densities, and the operator is prohibited from using Huawei 5G in Strasbourg, Brest, Toulouse and Rennes.

However, the French government seems to refuse to provide compensation to operators for the cost of this work.

French telecom market giant Orange’s mobile network relies on Ericsson and Nokia. And Iliad, the disruptor in this market, seems to rely heavily on Nokia.

At the same time, France finally began to deploy 5G. Facts have proved that France is lagging behind in 5G development on the global stage. SFR launched a 5G network in Nice in November 2020, followed by Bouygues Telecom, Iliad and Orange in December.

In February this year, Bouygues Telecom stated that its 5G network has covered 25 major cities and towns. France completed its 5G auction in 2020, when four operators were granted licenses to use spectrum in the 3.4GHz-3.8GHz frequency band.

French telecom regulator Arcep said that as of January 31, Iliad had deployed the most commercial 5G sites (6273), followed by Bouygues Telecom (1885), Orange (953) and SFR (869).