Deputies received Huawei routers to equip their office

It is with surprise that Eric Bothorel discovered the team of his tenure. In his package, the Renaissance deputy for the fifth district of Côtes-d’Armor discovered a Huawei router, whose snapshot he shared on Twitter.

In recent years, Huawei equipment has been the subject of many fears, following accusations of espionage brought by the United States. Although no hard evidence could support the American claims, the repercussions against the Chinese manufacturer were taken in Europe.

In the United Kingdom, but also in Sweden, the equipment of the Chinese company is prohibited in almost all the infrastructures necessary for the operation of the 5G network.

Protect certain sensitive sites

As far as France is concerned, the law of August 1, 2019 was adopted to “preserve the interests of defense and national security”. Without direct restriction against the Chinese manufacturer, this law obliges operators to request authorization to install a repeater antenna.

It is then up to the National Agency for Security and Information Systems (Anssi) to decide. And it does so by favoring European equipment manufacturers, to the detriment of China’s Huawei, even going so far as to force the removal of several Bouygues Telecom antennas, as indicated The Figaro, to protect certain sensitive sites. Among them we find the European Parliament, submarines or even the aeronautical and telecommunications industries, the newspaper specifies.

Therefore, MPs’ offices within your constituency do not appear to be sensitive sites. At least that’s what we can gather from the provision of a Huawei AR617VW router to MP Eric Borthorel.

In January 2022, Bouygues Telecom won the National Assembly tender to equip deputies. A month later, the Constitutional Council validated the “anti-Huawei” legislative provisions.

Contacted, neither Bouygues Telecom nor the National Assembly have yet responded to BFMTV’s requests.