Lithuanian telecoms drop Huawei for ‘geopolitical reasons’

Telia Lietuva, the largest telecoms operator in Lithuania, dropped Huawei due to “geopolitical reasons”, CEO Dan Stromberg told BNS.

In early November, Telia Lietuva announced a partnership with Ericsson to develop the 5G network in Lithuania. In an interview with BNS, Stromberg said the reason Huawei was not considered was because of the “geopolitical situation”.

"Ericsson is a good strategic partner for this. We have them in Sweden and Estonia as well," Stromberg told BNS.

Telia Lietuva will replace the existing 4G base stations with Ericsson products and will use the new equipment for the 5G expansion. Some 2,000 base stations are set to be replaced in total.

There will be no Huawei equipment in both 4G and 5G networks, according to Stromberg.

Huawei | AP nuotr.

"The beauty of this new Ericsson equipment is significantly lower energy consumption, so it's good from the sustainability point of view. We look at Ericsson and feel that they are state-of-the-art when it comes to some of the deployment," he added.

Lithuanian officials, as well as military and intelligence officers have previously said that the involvement of Chinese companies in the country’s 5G infrastructure poses a threat.

Linas Linkevičius and Mike Pompeo | Lithuanian Foreign Ministry

US pressure

In September, Lithuania and the United States signed an agreement to cooperate in developing 5G telecommunication infrastructure.

“It's a memorandum on the principles that are difficult not to agree with. We're talking about transparency, about competitiveness, respect and protection for intellectual property. About the governments not interfering with technology,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius told LRT TV at the time.

The US administration has been pressing its allies to bar Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from taking part in the development of 5G networks.