Report: Huawei accounts for 59% of Germany's 5G radio access network equipment compared to 57% in 4G networks, despite intense diplomatic pressure from the US
Sarah Marsh / Reuters : Tweets: @kenweinstein , @richardgrenell , @thinking_panda , @doener , and @joshuasteinman Tweets: Kenneth Weinstein / @kenweinstein : “There are indications that 🇩🇪 has not taken the security threat that 🇨🇳 poses seriously,” the study says, drawing comparisons to the NordStream2 gas pipeline, long criticised by opponents...which Berlin justified by saying 🇷🇺 would not weaponise energy." https://www.reuters.com/... Richard Grenell / @richardgrenell : This is another Biden team failure. @wendyrsherman never brought up NATO spending nor Huawei when she was in Berlin last week singing the praises of the new German government. State Department media didn't even notice. @APDiploWriter https://twitter.com/... @thinking_panda : How many years has the US investigated Huawei? There is still no any solid evidence that Huawei threatens national security. This proves that Huawei's products are trustworthy. https://www.reuters.com/... @doener : “Germany has become even more dependent on Huawei for its 5G radio access network equipment (RAN) than in its 4G network despite growing worries about Chinese involvement in critical infrastructure” https://www.reuters.com/... Joshua Steinman / @joshuasteinman : Germans going to get absolutely owned (industrial/diplomatic espionage) with this terrible decision. Would not be surprised if Chinese give RU access as well. @RichardGrenell and I worked for years to convince them to use European mfg'rs. https://www.reuters.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Huawei's dominance in Germany is the endgame of a long build-out: years of big-spending expansion across Europe made its gear hard to displace, and in December 2020 Berlin formally permitted Huawei's 5G technology after safety assurances, pending parliamentary approval. This Reuters report measures what that permission produced — a 59% share of 5G radio access networks, slightly above its 57% share of 4G.
First-order effects
- German mobile operators remain locked into a majority-Huawei radio layer even as US officials like Richard Grenell publicly fault the Biden administration for not pressing Berlin harder on the security question.
- The finding directly undercuts the premise of the 2020 assurances deal: diplomatic pressure has not reduced Huawei's footprint, it has grown with each network generation.
Second-order effects
- Beijing's reported curbs on Nokia and Ericsson in Chinese networks give Berlin a retaliation risk to weigh against any forced rip-and-replace, since European vendors' China revenue sits on the other side of the ledger.
- With the radio access share entrenched, scrutiny migrates up the stack toward the 5G core, where replacement is technically narrower and politically cheaper than touching every antenna site.
Third-order effects
- Subsequent reporting that Germany neared a decision to strip Huawei and ZTE from the 5G core points to a two-tier architecture — a 'trusted' core bolted onto an untrusted foreign radio layer — as the compromise structure other European states may copy.
- If access-network entrenchment proves irreversible through diplomacy alone, procurement rules rather than persuasion become the binding instrument, formalizing supplier trust tiers across EU telecoms.
The trend: European 5G infrastructure is splitting along geopolitical lines, with embedded Chinese vendor share forcing governments to regulate trust at the network core instead of excluding suppliers outright.