Huawei chose France as the location for the construction of its first equipment factory for 4G and 5G networks in Europe. The Chinese manufacturer says it will invest 200 million euros in the first phase of building the facilities that will allow the creation of 500 jobs.
The company indicates in a press release that the new plant in France will produce technology for European customers. Huawei says that the choice of location is related to the fact that the country has infrastructures with a high degree of maturity and highly qualified labor, in addition to an important geographical position.
France has not yet started the process of implementing 5G networks. However, partly reflecting the decision taken by Vodafone in the United Kingdom, the French company Orange announced that it had contracted Nokia and Ericsson to develop the fifth generation mobile network in the country.
The decision announced by Liang Hua, Chairman of the Chinese manufacturer, at a press conference in Paris, comes after several European companies and countries have expressed their position in relation to companies considered "high risk", such as Huawei.
On the one hand, at the end of January, the European Commission launched a set of tools to mitigate the dangers related to the adoption of 5G by its Member States. The toolbox announced by Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of PastaEra Digital, is not aimed at any specific country or company, but contains measures aimed at respecting the internal market and citizens against cyber hazards related to 5G.
