Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister since 2018, thrilled Donald Trump’s legions of European critics earlier this year when he opposed the US bombardment of Iran and shrugged off the American president’s retaliatory trade threats. The EU might be less happy about his apparent coziness with China. Sánchez drops in to see authoritarian ruler Xi Jinping more often than many people visit their relatives. Spain now has a growing trade deficit with a country widely thought to be aiding Russia’s war on Ukraine. It also remains hooked on Huawei.
That has become unacceptable to EU authorities, which are determined to rid Europe of a Chinese network equipment supplier they class as a “high-risk vendor” (HRV). Around six years since the EU published its “5G toolbox,” advising countries to avoid HRVs for that technology, Huawei still accounts for between a third and 40% of the European market for mobile network infrastructure, according to an estimate provided earlier in 2026 by Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm, who steps down this month. Together with Germany and Italy, Spain is among the worst Huawei addicts, said John Strand, the CEO of Danish analyst firm Strand Consult.
A planned update of the Cybersecurity Act will mandate the removal of Huawei from the EU’s 5G networks and penalize offenders. But Spain has shown little inclination to heed this year’s legislative moves. In May, it was reported by Bloomberg to be opposing the EU’s latest plans, as was Germany. The Spanish government is even thought to have recently told network operators that they will be allowed to continue using Huawei.
Backtracking
There have certainly not been any moves by local authorities to ban or restrict Huawei, as were seen in the UK six years ago. Spain did approve a law to implement the 5G toolbox in early 2024 called the National 5G Cybersecurity Scheme (ENS5G), according to Strand’s research. Yet it has curiously not been implemented, meaning that “no concrete timeline or plan has been established for how the law should be put into action,” said the analyst company in a research note.
Spain’s government has also not yet designated any vendors as “high risk,” according to a report prepared by Assembly Research for Connect Europe (formerly ETNO), a telco lobby group. Light Reading obtained a copy of that report before its planned publication this week.
Data from Strand Consult last year gave HRVs, and chiefly Huawei, a 91% share of the 5G radio access network (RAN) operated by Vodafone Spain, now a subsidiary of Zegona, a UK-headquartered investment company. At the time, HRVs also accounted for 58% of the 5G RAN that belongs to MasOrange. Formed from the merger of local operators Orange Spain and MásMóvil in April 2024, it is now wholly owned by Orange.
According to earlier reports, MasOrange had previously planned a wholesale transition from HRVs to Ericsson, its other 5G supplier. In July 2024, just three months after it came into existence, MasOrange was reported by the Spanish newspaper Expansión to be using Huawei across 54% of RAN sites, ZTE at 12% and Ericsson for the remainder. Under planned changes, Ericsson was supposed to phase out ZTE by the end of 2027, said the report, and replace Huawei in the Spanish regions of Extremadura and Andalusia, as well as the Canary Islands.
That shift would leave Ericsson with a 61% share of the network and Huawei with the remainder. But the Swedish company was eventually expected to become the sole RAN vendor, replacing Huawei at other sites before 2030, said Expansión. In its later statement on the deal, Ericsson said it would provide technology for the core as well as the RAN. “We are doing a complete modernization of that combined network, and, of course, bringing our latest equipment into the network,” said Per Narvinger, the head of Ericsson’s mobile networks business group and incoming CEO, on a call with Light Reading in April last year.
With Spain’s government resisting EU measures, MasOrange has seemingly backtracked. Last month, a spokesperson for the operator apparently told Expansión that no firm decisions have been made about the use of suppliers in the next few years. Although Ericsson’s share of the network has reportedly now risen to 57%, MasOrange has put its contract under review, blaming Ericsson’s failure to hit certain targets, according to the newspaper. Approached this week by Light Reading about its relationship with Huawei, Orange declined to comment.
Even so, Huawei looks to be involved in more than just the MasOrange and Vodafone RANs. Since last year, it has also provided technology for MasOrange’s network operations center (NOC), a particularly sensitive part of the infrastructure, according to sources. Within Vodafone Spain, Huawei is also said to be responsible for business- and consumer-facing software elements of non-standalone 5G, the version of the technology that relies on the old 4G core. “Vodafone Spain complies with all currently applicable regulations relating to network security and obligations concerning equipment and suppliers,” said the operator by email when asked about Huawei’s continued presence in its network.
Huawei is also still believed to have a relationship with Telefónica. While the Spanish incumbent depends on other vendors for its 5G RAN, the standalone 5G core for its consumer business is supplied by Huawei, said Light Reading’s sources. As the network’s brain, the core is regarded by many industry experts as a far more critical component than the RAN. Germany’s operators have similarly resisted pressure to remove Huawei’s RAN products, but all have now switched to alternatives for the core. Telefónica did not respond to an email from Light Reading asking about its use of Huawei.
Scandi noir
Sánchez’s friendliness with China is bad news for Ericsson and Nokia, which would naturally benefit from a tougher government stance on HRVs. Justin Hotard, Nokia’s American boss, has been outspoken in questioning Europe’s tolerance of Huawei when China remains largely closed to the European suppliers.
No doubt, the sheer volume of business it enjoys in the protected Chinese market allows Huawei to price more aggressively in other parts of the world. Domiciled in smaller and more open markets, Ericsson and Nokia cannot easily replicate that advantage. But if low-cost Chinese competition were to render them commercially unviable, Europe’s telcos would be entirely dependent on one or two Asian vendors and potentially worse off.
Opposition by the German and Spanish governments to the Cybersecurity Act update is to critics an illustration of the EU’s futility. On that matter, it has evidently failed to effect change in some of the region’s biggest economies. Yet a Europe without a united voice will inevitably sound weaker than China and the US.
As for Spanish government officials, they will have a concerned eye on imports of Chinese electronics and other goods worth billions of euros. According to a recent article by the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Spain had a $35 billion trade deficit with China last year.
Sánchez has described the trade imbalance as “unsustainable” while simultaneously welcoming record levels of Chinese foreign direct investment in Spain. Last year’s reports of a contract between his government and Huawei to manage intelligence wiretaps provoked a horrified rebuke from US officials. “Spain is playing with fire as it puts its national security and the safety of its citizens on the line,” said Rick Crawford, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, before calling Huawei a “known agent” of the Chinese Communist Party.
Huawei has long resisted such descriptions, insisting it is owned by its employees. Founder Ren Zhengfei once said he would cease operations before he agreed to spy on Huawei’s customers for China. With Sanchez in charge, he at least seems assured of having Spanish customers to serve.
