Telefónica has renewed the most important contract of its 5G network with Huawei in favor of the government of that country. The operator has granted Huawei the administration of the nucleus or core From their 5G network for residential users until 2030, sources in the sector of all solvency informed El País. The agreement was signed in December 2024, under the presidency of José María Álvarez-Pallete and before the current president, Marc Murtra, relieved Marc Murtra. This is the most relevant 5G contract from the economic point of view, since it affects millions of lines of residential customers. Not from the strategic point of view, because the management of the core of corporate clients and public administrations – which includes national security – has been awarded to Finns Nakia.
The contract will involve for the smart center that governs all data and communications of mobile telephony, since the validity of the same is extended from 2025 until the end of 2030, the sources mentioned reported. The low price offered by Huawei has been the determining factor for the group’s Spanish subsidiary to opt for the Chinese brand against European manufacturers. A asset, that of prices, which makes Huawei almost unbeatable, and that has led other operators such as Masorange and Vodafone Spain to also keep him in their networks.
He core It is the central nucleus of the mobile network, the smart center that governs all data traffic and mobile telephony communications. The rest is the radio access network (Radio Access Network or RAN), formed by the base stations where the antennas are located and that are deployed by the territory to offer coverage. He core It is the critical element of the network and, therefore, the first objective in case of cyber attack. In the case of Telefónica, Huawei provides the platform, but the data is managed by the company itself, always encrypted.
he core From its entire Spanish 5G network to Huawei, coinciding with the veto to the Chinese brand announced by the first administration of Donald Trump. However, given the international criticisms received and the attitude of other great European operators such as Deutsche Telekom or BT, Telefónica backward and said that he would reorder his strategy to gradually exclude the Chinese manufacturer from his 5G contracts and diversify his suppliers.
In compliance with that multiproveor policy, he divided the original contract of the core of his 5G network standalone (the real 5G, without dependence on 4G) in two subcontracts: that of the control plane, which allows the connection between the users; and in the user plane of that same network, which governs the traffic that each customer makes with their mobile (downloads, videos, internet connection, etc.). In December 2021, Telefónica awarded Ericsson the control plan. And at the beginning of 2025 he awarded Nokia the user plan of that same network, but in this case only for business clients and public administrations. The bulk of the contract, which affects the more than 15 million Movistar lines of residential customers, was renewed with Huawei.
Complies with the regulations
The renewal of the contract with the Chinese brand does not breach national regulations because Spain has not approved any list of risk suppliers. With Huawei. Some of them such as Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom (before Brexit), Romania and Denmark have included the Chinese firm in a list of risk suppliers expressly prohibiting their hiring by telecommunications operators.
On the relationship with Huawei, the group’s CEO, Emilio Gayo, recently said that Telefónica complies with the regulations in each of the countries where they are operating for what their 5G equipment of the Chinese manufacturer in Germany in Germany is replacing and reducing them in Spain, but they intend to keep them in Brazil, where no restriction is applied. Gayo, as president of Telefónica España, was the head of the subsidiary when he renewed the contract with Huawei, before Murtra promoted him to CEO of the group in replacement of Ángel Vilà.
Contracted with Vodafone
This is not the only important contract that Huawei has achieved in Spain in the last year with the operators. Vodafone Spain is in advanced negotiations to award the management of its network control center (Network Operation Center or NOC), sources from the sector reported. The Chinese firm is responsible for the monitoring, management and maintenance of the infrastructure of the access network, such as the incidents closest to the end user. Once again, the low price offered by Chinese electronics will be decisive in achieving this contract. Vodafone, now in the hands of the British Zegona Fund, has declined to comment on the information. In this way, it follows the steps of Masorange that last March also granted to Huawei the contract for the management of its network control center.
The contracts signed with Huawei by companies and public administrations are being observed with suspicion by the US government, which considers the Chinese manufacturer a pawn at the service of the communist authorities that govern the country, through the data collected by the networks and equipment 5G that the electronic manufacturer markets throughout the world. They have asked the Department of Commerce to investigate the contract of 12.3 million euros that the Ministry of Interior awarded Huawei to manage telephone listeners with judicial authorization of the police forces. The initiative seeks to review trade agreements with Spain.
This is the second initiative that starts from the US Congress, warning of this contract, after the letter that the presidents of the Intelligence Committees of the House of Representatives and the US Senate, Tom Cotton and Rick Crawford, on the US that this falls in the hands of China.
