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Vodafone will continue to use Huawei’s radio access equipment in its mobile telecommunication networks in the UK and Europe
Vodafone and Huawei have hit back over news reports claiming that Vodafone had uncovered evidence of sub-par security in Huawei’s network architecture, calling them misleading and false.
Earlier this week, a Bloomberg report claimed that Vodafone had found evidence that Huawei left back doors in its telecoms equipment that undermined the security of its networks – potentially providing a route for Chinese government to commit acts of espionage. The article claimed that Vodafone made the discovery as early as 2011.
However, Europe’s biggest telco was quick to refute the articles allegations, saying that Bloomberg had drawn misleading conclusions in its reporting. In a statement to the press, Vodafone clarified its findings and defended the Chinese vendor.
"The backdoor that Bloomberg refers to is Telnet, which is a protocol that is commonly used by many vendors in the industry for performing diagnostic functions. It would not have been accessible from the internet,” it said.
“Bloomberg is incorrect in saying that this ‘could have given Huawei unauthorised access to the carrier’s fixed-line network in Italy’. In addition, we have no evidence of any unauthorised access. This was nothing more than a failure to remove a diagnostic function after development,” the statement read.
Huawei remains one of the industry’s biggest players in the 5G space – having signed over 40 commercial deployment contracts and shipped 70,000 base stations to network operators across the globe.
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