After US and Australia, New Zealand happens to be the latest country to ban Huawei from entering its country and upgrading its mobile network to 5G. Reports are in that the Mobile Company Spark was intending to use Huawei equipment to offer 5G services in the country located in Southwestern Pacific Ocean.
But the government dictated stringent orders early this week by banning Spark from using Huawei equipment for a 5G network upgrade.
In August this year, United States President Donald Trump released an executive order banning all equipment supplied by the Chinese manufacturers ZTE & Huawei from being used in government agencies. The order was issued based on the investigation provided by FBI that the said manufacturers were using spying software on the equipment (especially smartphones) being supplied to the United States. And those devices were sending critical info to remote servers based in Beijing.
For this reason, all the telecom networks & ISPs in the United States barred the use of Huawei phones Routers by their respective customers.
Spark says that it was extremely disappointed with the decision pronounced by the Government Communications Security Bureau of New Zealand. However, the company is still confident that it will succeed in introducing a 5G network to the populace by 2020.
Note- As per the Chinese law directed in the year 2017, every organization and citizen has been asked to support, assist, and cooperate with intelligence work. Moreover, the government of China has put a stipulation that companies doing business in their region should either store data on their soil or offer a backdoor into the services being offered to the Chinese Populace.
Based on the prevailing laws in China and some substantial evidence, Huawei’s equipment was marked as a conduit for espionage.
Early this year i.e. in March, Spark showcased a 5G test at a site near to Parliament using the equipment of Huawei. And the then Broadcast Minister of New Zealand Clare Curran is said to have attended the event.
A source from BBC on the condition of anonymity said that the government of New Zealand was pressurized to implement the ban on Huawei equipment by the members of “Five Eyes” an alliance comprising of US, Britain, Canada, and Australia.
