Huawei Australia still waiting for 'formal' NBN, 5G ban notifications

Huawei Australia says it is still awaiting “formal notification” of its bans from the NBN and 5G networks, reiterating long-standing calls for its equipment to be “independently tested” and its cyber security processes reviewed.

Security fears saw Huawei banned from bidding for NBN work back in 2012 and then from participating in 5G networks in mid-2018.

The 5G ban in part leant on the Telecommunications Sector Security Reforms or TSSR, which addressed the threat posed by suppliers of equipment and managed services located in foreign countries.

With a statutory review of the TSSR now underway, Huawei Australia said in a submission [pdf] to that process that it is “well placed to provide first-hand experience of the implementation and impact of the legislation … as one of a handful of corporations to be negatively targeted”.

“The TSSR reforms could be viewed as a tool designed to remove Huawei and other Chinese headquartered companies from the market,” Huawei Australia said.

“TSSR hasn’t made the Australian telecommunications network any safer or more secure. 

“In fact, we argue because of the overdependence on one single vendor in Australia the security risk of a ’single point of failure' has made Australia’s telecom networks far more vulnerable.”

Huawei suggested that Australia’s trust in other network equipment makers may be misplaced.

“Australia has presumed Nokia and Ericsson can be trusted because they are headquartered in countries that are close European allies: Huawei, conversely, cannot be trusted because it’s headquartered in China,” it said.

"We ... strongly urge that the determination that a company is worthy of trust - and thus that its products should automatically be deemed trustworthy - should not depend solely on where the company is headquartered."

Huawei continued: “In recent years, many high profile hacking incidents have been highlighted in Australia and around the world. 

“In a significant number of these incidents attackers compromised the target systems through a trusted vendor. 

“Trust that is not based on evidence is a network security design flaw.”

Much of Huawei’s submission repeats previous arguments the company has put forward to counter the bans.

The vendor continues to hold open some hope that aspects of the bans might be overturned.