The FCC shouldn’t give China-based Dahua the confidential treatment it seeks for its compliance plan with FCC rules, Motorola Solutions said. Dahua, which is on the FCC’s covered list of companies deemed to pose a security risk, filed the plan with the FCC in April to show how its gear won’t affect public safety or other secure communications. The plan “contains sensitive business information regarding a privately-held company’s day-to-day operation,” Dahua said in an April filing. “Dahua’s request that its compliance plan be shielded in its entirety from public inspection should be denied because it runs afoul of Commission rules, which prohibit such blanket and overbroad claims of confidentiality,” Motorola said, posting Monday in docket 21-232: “Dahua has not made the substantive demonstration for confidential treatment as required by the Commission’s rules, doing little more than parroting the criteria for confidential treatment under those rules.”

China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom joined the GSMA's “Open Gateway” initiative designed to provide universal access to operator networks for developers, GSMA said Monday, ahead of this week’s Mobile World Congress Shanghai. The initiative was unveiled in February (see 2302270069) and now is supported by 29 mobile network operators. “China represents the largest 5G market in the world, so having China’s three largest operators committed to this initiative demonstrates its global significance and the strong business case it offers,” said Mats Granryd, GSMA director general.

Vodafone launched 5G stand-alone service in parts of the U.K. Friday, including London, Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff, the first company to do so there, it said. Initial 5G Ultra devices are the Samsung Galaxy S21 and S22 “with more to follow in July,” Vodafone said. “Whereas the existing 5G service offered by telecoms companies relies partly on 4G technology (which is why it is known as 5G Non-standalone), Vodafone’s 5G Standalone has every element fully upgraded and future-proofed,” the company said: “Customers will also be able to benefit … at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Masts in the Wimbledon area have been upgraded to deliver the new service, including ones which provide coverage to the courts and the surrounding outdoor fan zones.”

Thierry Breton, EU commissioner for the internal market, urged member states to do more to ban high-risk suppliers like Huawei and ZTE from their telecom networks. “The security of 5G networks is essential,” Breton said last week: “They are critical infrastructures in their own right and for other sectors that depend on them, such as energy, transport, health and finance.” To date, only 10 EU members have acted to restrict or exclude high-risk vendors, he said. Breton called that pace “too slow” and said it “poses a major security risk and exposes the Union's collective security, since it creates a major dependency for the EU and serious vulnerabilities.” The EU will work with member states and telecom providers, he said. “I can only emphasize the importance of speeding up decisions to replace high-risk suppliers from their 5G networks,” he said. “Huawei will make the road ahead difficult and will attempt to sabotage the European Commission’s efforts” and nations and providers “should prepare for pushback,” John Strand of Strand Consult blogged. “The foundation of any economy, be it the EU, the US or China, is national security,” he said: “Some may find the EU approach tough, but it pales in comparison the blockade that China has imposed on foreign technology providers for years.” A Huawei spokesperson disputed the EU statement. “This is clearly not based on a verified, transparent, objective and technical assessment of 5G networks,” the spokesperson emailed: “Huawei understands the European Commission’s concern to protect cybersecurity within the EU. However, restrictions or exclusions based on discriminatory judgments will pose serious economic and social risks. It would hamper innovation and distort the EU market. An Oxford Economics report states that excluding Huawei could increase 5G investment costs by up to tens of billions of euros, and it will have to be paid by European consumers.”

Vodafone Group and CK Hutchison unveiled a long-expected combination of their U.K. telecom businesses, after talks that started last fall. Vodafone would own 51% of the business, CK Hutchison 49% and no cash would change hands, under the agreement, which European regulators must approve. The combined company would have a value of at least $21 billion, with 27 million wireless customers. “From day one, millions of customers” of Vodafone UK and CK Hutchison's Three UK “will enjoy a better network experience with greater coverage and reliability at no extra cost, including through certain flexible, contract-free offers with no annual price increases, and social tariffs,” Vodafone said in a news release. The new company would cover more than 99% of the U.K. population with a 5G stand-alone network, “delivering to customers up to a six-fold increase in average data speeds by 2034,” Vodafone said. The companies plan to invest $14 billion in the U.K. over 10 years “to create one of Europe’s most advanced standalone 5G networks, in full support of UK Government targets,” Vodafone said.

The board of directors of the U.S. Export-Import Bank approved a preliminary commitment to lend $300 million to the government of Costa Rica’s Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad & Subsidiaries for equipment and services from trusted vendors to deploy a 5G network, the bank said Friday. Ex-Im "financing can play a key role in ensuring 5G telecommunications infrastructure is built and supported by trusted vendors,” said President and Chair Reta Jo Lewis.

Before Ligado can get ancillary terrestrial component authority in the L band, a more in-depth review of potential interference to adjacent band services is needed, said Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada Wednesday, denying Ligado's 2022 application. Noting Ligado's U.S. authorization, ISED said harmonization of technical standards is important, but it would be premature to give Ligado an ATC authorization due to interference concerns. In its decision, ISED cited a National Academies of Science report raising concerns about possible interference to high-precision GPS receivers and Iridium downlinks (see 2209090032). ISED said it "strongly encourages" collaboration among the stakeholders to assess the potential for interference from proposed ATC services in the 1525-1559 MHz band into adjacent-band global navigation satellite system receivers. Ligado emailed it's disappointed the agency is seeking additional study, but "we also appreciate that ISED believes this will help achieve consensus in its efforts to ensure maximum and efficient terrestrial use of the L-band in Canada. This band has been extensively studied in the U.S., and we’re confident additional technical studies will continue to show these frequencies, like most spectrum bands, can -- and should -- be used for multiple services. We will continue collaborating with ISED and other parties while remaining focused on working with our partners to commercially launch satellite Direct-to-Device (D2D) service solutions later this year.”

U.K.-based Vodafone will slash 11,000 jobs over the next three years, about 10% of its workforce, the company said Tuesday. “Our performance has not been good enough,” said new CEO Margherita Della Valle: “To consistently deliver, Vodafone must change.”

Mobile connections are critical to closing the digital divide in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, said a GSMA report released Tuesday. GSMA said more than 40% of the population live in rural areas “where mobile connectivity is the primary, and often only, form of internet access.” Countries in the region are undergoing a digital revolution, driven by ambitious government digital transformation initiatives and a general trend towards greater digitalisation, spurred by the pandemic,” the report said. While 45 million people in the region use mobile broadband, another 50 million remain unconnected, GSMA said.

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom has Huawei gear in its network, including antennas, but doesn’t plan to remove it, CEO Tim Hottges said Thursday on a financial call. “There is no ban here of Huawei, and I even don’t see a ban coming,” he said, noting the security review Germany is performing on all Chinese gear. “What Deutsche Telekom and what the other carriers are doing is that we are just following the law, and we are just following the political guidance on this area,” he said. Hottges emphasized the growth of its majority-owned T-Mobile in the U.S. T-Mobile covers 275 million POPs with its ultra-capacity 5G network, he said: “We are way ahead of our competition, and we will reach 300 million POPs by end of the year.”