PARIS, Jan 31 — Orange, France’s biggest telecoms company, said it had chosen Nokia and Ericsson to deploy its 5G network in mainland France, as China’s Huawei Technologies faces intense political scrutiny in Europe.

"For Orange, the deployment of 5G represents a huge challenge and is one of the main priorities of our Engage 2025 strategic plan,” said Orange France CEO Fabienne Dulac.

"We are delighted to be pursuing our partnerships with both Nokia and Ericsson, two key long-term partners, in order to develop a powerful and innovative 5G network,” added Dulac.

Earlier this week, the European Union followed Britain’s example in allowing members to decide what part Huawei can play in its 5G telecoms networks and resisting pressure from Washington for an outright ban.

EU countries can either restrict or exclude high-risk 5G vendors such as Huawei from core parts of their telecoms networks, according to the new guidelines, which seek to address the cybersecurity risks to the bloc’s 28 countries at a national and EU level. — Reuters