Nokia disowns senior executive comment about Huawei

Telecom giant Nokia has distanced itself from the comments made by one of its senior executives about Huawei, saying that his comments do "not reflect the official position of Nokia".

Nokia's chief technology officer Marcus Weldon told BBC on Friday that Britain should be wary of using the Chinese technology as Huawei's telecoms kit had vulnerabilities that could pose a risk to 5G networks.

After the BBC story was published, Nokia said in a statement that Weldon's comments do "not reflect the official position of Nokia".

"Nokia is focused on the integrity of its own products and services and does not have its own assessment of any potential vulnerabilities associated with its competitors," said the statement.

In response to Nokia's latest statement, Huawei said Nokia's had recognized that "ill-informed loose talk does not help our customers or the industry more widely".

"We win new business by fair competition and on the basis of our technology and customer focus, not by denigrating our competitors," said Huawei in a statement.

"The best way to improve cyber security and ensure network resilience is for all vendors to agree to independent testing of their equipment and source code - just as we have done in the UK," it said.

Huawei is the world's leading company in 5G. According to the Chinese company, Huawei already won 50 5G contracts globally, well ahead of the global competition.

Mobile network operator Vodafone will switch on its 5G network in seven cities across Britain on July 3, with the help of Huawei equipment. The move follows the launch of 5G service by operator EE on May 30, which also uses Huawei technology. The operators have warned that excluding the Chinese firm would lead to a lengthy delay in the 5G roll-out and raise costs of 5G construction.