Brazil: No Huawei in 5G bidding requirements

According to foreign media reports, Brazilian Communications Minister Fabio Faria said at a public hearing of the Congressional 5G Working Group that Huawei will not be included in the list of 5G and private communications network suppliers to be used by the government.

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Asked by lawmakers whether Huawei could be barred from certain specific projects, Faria said the Chinese company was not inclined to participate in the government network that would be built by the winning bidder in an upcoming 5G auction.

According to the minister, Huawei does not meet the requirements of a recent bid submitted by Brazilian telecommunications company Anatel.

However, Faria said the Brazilian government would not prevent any country or organization from doing business in Brazil, but could define standards for its own networks, such as requiring suppliers to follow corporate governance rules compatible with those of Brazilian listed companies.

In addition, Faria said that during the government's recent global tour, during meetings with governments and suppliers in countries where the 5G equipment market leaders are located, it became clear that Huawei was not interested in providing equipment for government networks.

Although Faria reiterated that all the companies the Brazilian government has approached, such as Ericsson, Nokia, NEC and Huawei, invest heavily in cybersecurity, the minister also stressed that if backdoors or other technologies that could facilitate espionage are integrated into the equipment, "it is impossible to detect."

A Huawei representative said the company follows all corporate governance standards, is audited annually by KPMG and believes it meets technical standards in areas such as security.

However, the company is still working to determine whether it complies with non-technical regulations related to private networks.

Asked to comment on the latest developments, Huawei said in a statement: "Huawei has been operating in Brazil for 23 years and has always worked with integrity, ethics and transparency. We are committed to our customers, partners and Brazil's digital transformation."

Brazil's 5G auction will be held in June. According to Anatel, the initial cost for telecom companies to use the 3.5 GHz band is estimated at 35 billion reais (about 6.2 billion U.S. dollars). Over the next 20 years, companies will need to invest an additional 80 billion reais (about 14 billion U.S. dollars) in 5G.