GSMA says Europe would spend 40 billion euros to replace Huawei… U.S. media says costs are overstated

GSMA Intelligence estimated that replacing Huawei and other high-risk vendor equipment under EU cybersecurity rules could cost 30 billion to 40 billion euros directly.

Politiico and LightReading argued the real incremental cost could be lower once natural replacement cycles and the scope of the rules are taken into account.

They also suggested the report may have reflected telecom operators’ interests and overstated the expense.

The debate matters because EU telecom security rules could affect operators’ investment burden and the pace of 5G and other next-generation network rollouts.