The United States is ready to give Ukraine money if it refuses to use the equipment produced by Chinese company Huawei to build the core of its fifth-generation, or 5G, networks, according to Keith Krach, U.S. deputy secretary of state for economic development.
Krach said that the cheapness of Huawei network equipment might cost Ukrainians their privacy and that, to encourage the country to avoid this risk, the U.S. would cover the price difference between the Chinese equipment and more expensive U.S. or European hardware.
“Why is China’s offer lower? Why do they provide such cheap services? Because they want your data,” Krach said during an online briefing, according to a story by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a U.S. state-run broadcasting organization. To avoid security risks, Ukraine should look for “trusted vendors” to build its first 5G network, Krach added.
On the same day, Krach met with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and, after the meeting, said that Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had agreed to remove all the Huawei equipment from its buildings. Several other government agencies decided to follow suit, according to him.
The Huawei 5G equipment is much more affordable for Ukraine than the hardware produced by tech giants like U.S. Cisco, Swedish Ericsson or French Alcatel. And even if the U.S. government agrees to cover the price difference, Ukrainian firms will still have to pay for regular maintenance of the hardware.
At the same time, Ukrainian cybersecurity experts told the Kyiv Post that the U.S. has given no hard evidence to prove that tech by Huawei is dangerous.
The U.S. accused Huawei of spying on behalf of the Chinese government back in 2019 and banned the use of equipment by the Chinese tech giant in most areas, seeing it as a threat to national security. Huawei has always denied the accusation.
The two countries were in an economic conflict for many years, but, after the U.S. ban, other countries started to scrutinize Huawei, too. In fact, the U.S. has launched an initiative called Clean Network, encouraging “trusted” network telecom companies to unite and “stand up to authoritarian regimes.” Over 50 countries have joined so far.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thanked Ukraine for supporting this initiative on Dec. 23, but, according to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine hasn’t officially become a member of the initiative.
We join over 50 Clean Countries in welcoming Ukraine’s support for the Clean Network principles. Thank you to the government of Ukraine and Prime Minister @Denys_Shmyhal for your commitment to securing your sovereignty, citizens’ privacy, and intellectual property.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) December 22, 2020
Ukrainian cybersecurity expert Volodymyr Styran thinks the U.S. continues voicing security concerns and asking to ban the company in other countries to cover its true economic and political interests, including to defend U.S. electronics manufacturers from a competitor like this. Huawei is the world’s largest telecom equipment supplier and a popular smartphone brand.
“It is just a trade war between two superpowers,” Styran said.
Despite the alleged threats and the U.S. ban, many companies keep buying the Chinese equipment because it is cheaper, said Maksym Tulyev, an expert from the Ukrainian Internet Association. And Ukrainian mobile operators have been using it for years.
Huawei has supplied them with equipment for 3G and 4G networks since 2015, Huawei Ukraine spokesperson Oleksandra Tereshchuk told the Kyiv Post. In 2020, Ukraine used Huawei equipment to roll out 4G in the Kyiv metro system.
But it’s early even to start thinking about procuring equipment for 5G networks in Ukraine: The three largest mobile operators in Ukraine — Kyivstar, Vodafone, and lifecell — unanimously say that Ukraine isn’t ready for this tech yet. They plan to expand their existing 4G networks until 2022, according to Vodafone Ukraine spokesperson Victoria Pavlovskaya.
Only after this step will they start to discuss procurement of 5G equipment and prepare for tenders, lifecell spokesperson Olga Mukha told the Kyiv Post.
The Chinese equipment has many flaws, experts said, but this technology is so complicated that, in fact, any company should face skepticism, according to an audio discussion organized and published by British news site The Guardian and titled “How worried should we be about Huawei?” Tulyev agrees. There’s no substantial reason to ban Huawei in Ukraine because any company can use this technology for spying, he said.
For Ukraine, it’s also a question of politics. On the one hand, the country supports the Clean Network principles and wants to have support from the U.S. But, on the other, Huawei works with many local companies and government agencies. The company even partnered with Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, one of the best universities in Ukraine.
Earlier in October, the Ukrainian State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, also known as SSSCIPU, announced that it would cooperate with Huawei in the fields of cybersecurity and telecommunications. Later, however, the Ukrainian agency removed this information from its website and refused to comment.
Ukraine’s Evropeiska Pravda news outlet suggested that SSSCIPU deleted the announcements after the Ukrainian government faced criticism from its Western partners for cooperating with Huawei. The news outlet did not cite the source of this information.
On Oct. 17, Tereshchuk from Huawei Ukraine told the Kyiv Post that the company would “continue to exchange experience to support Ukraine cyber security capability.”
