Connect Europe urges EU not to ban Huawei in new report

TL;DR: Connect Europe published a report this week urging the European Union not to ban Huawei, while an Assembly Research study it commissioned said the EU open RAN market remains at a nascent stage and most operators still rely on single-vendor RAN solutions.

Connect Europe published a report this week arguing that European Union legislation forcing operators to remove Huawei from 5G networks would be excessive and disproportionate. The report says a Huawei swap-out would disrupt 5G coverage plans, consume capital expenditure, and reduce the number of vendors available to European operators.

An Assembly Research report commissioned by Connect Europe, dated July and published this week, said: "In the EU, the open RAN market remains at a nascent stage, with most operators relying primarily on an end-to-end solution from a single vendor." The report was cited as evidence that operators including Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica want to keep Huawei in their networks in the absence of alternatives.

Omdia data cited in the article said Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung accounted for about 95% of the global RAN market in the first half of 2026. The same article said spending on RAN products fell from $45 billion in 2022 to $35 billion in 2025 and is expected to remain at that level in the foreseeable future.

The article also cited a July GSMA report that estimated replacing Huawei in Europe could cost as much as €35 billion ($40.7 billion). Assembly Research data cited in the article said Huawei and ZTE still held a 32% share of the European market, while Nokia said Ericsson and Nokia's combined share of the Chinese market had fallen to 3% by late 2025.