TelecomsA new report claims the cost of replacing Huawei and ZTE equipment in Europe’s networks is considerably lower than generally assumed.
Soon to be published by Strand Consult, the report is titled “The real cost to rip and replace of Chinese equipment in telecom networks.” It seems to have been written, at least in part, in response to analysis produced by the GSMA, which estimates a ban on Chinese gear would add $62 billion to the cost of European 5G networks and set them back by a year and a half.
The Strand report claims that cost is far lower, putting the cost of replacing Huawei equipment at just $3.5 billion, or around seven bucks per subscriber. The reason for this massive discrepancy is two-fold. Firstly Strand says around half of the GSMA figure is an extrapolation of the broader cost of delaying 5G and secondly it insists that 70-80% of existing RAN equipment is due to be replaced anyway, so should be discounted from the calculations.
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Scott Bicheno , September 19, 2019
Article Introduction
CTT co-founder John Strand and his firm Strand Consult are soon to release a study highlighting the overstated costs of replacing Huawei equipment in EU networks. The study, titled, ‘The real cost to rip and replace of Chinese equipment in telecom networks,” comes in response to inflated media and governmental reports that stated the initial cost of replacing maligned equipment in EU telecommunications networks is too high to be feasible. It also questions negative assumptions about the reduction in competition, pointing to the US where prices haven’t gone up in spite of the absence of Chinese vendors, and claims the GSMA number failed to attribute any overhead to the supposed security risk posed by Chinese vendors.