Huawei boycott could provide cost spikes

Oslo.Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd in Majorstua: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

If large Chinese players such as Huawei and ZTE are not allowed to build mobile networks in Norway, the networks could become considerably more expensive.

The United States have charged Huawei for breach of sanctions, several European countries are considering banning the company from building infrastructure, and the Police Security Service believe it is problematic if Huawei are allowed to build 5G networks in Norway.

But the exclusion of Chinese companies could lead to large additional costs for the telecom companies wrote Dagens Næringsliv (DN) newspaper.

‘’The competition within the supplier market has now become even narrower. So if you choose to blacklist Huawei and ZTE, it will have quite dramatic cost implications. There is talk of extra costs of several billion said mobile entrepreneur and former secretary of state, Trygve Tamburstuen to DN this weekend. He is supported by analyst Petter Kongslie in Sparebank 1 Markets.

‘’There is a risk of higher prices if Huawei and ZTE are blacklisted, there is no doubt’’ said Kongslie.

Beyond the costs, he still did not believe that a black list will hit the companies that run today’s mobile network.

‘’For Telenor, Telia and Ice itself, it should have little effect. There is enough capacity to roll out networks at the desired speed even with blacklists.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today