Telefónica and Cellnex challenge the fiber optic tender that the Generalitat has awarded to Sirt and Huawei

Telefónica and Cellnex have challenged the tender for the deployment of the public fiber optic network that the Generalitat awarded to the temporary joint venture (UTE) Sirt-Connecta, which will use Chinese Huawei technology, as has been reported. The Country And ARA has been able to confirm this. At the end of October, the Catalan government awarded these companies the contract to connect all its public services and facilities via fiber optics. The contract, worth 127 million euros, excluded companies such as Telefónica, MasOrange, and Vodafone and raised concerns because it involved the introduction of Chinese technology into a strategic project—one that connects critical public services such as the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), the education system, and emergency services—at a time when the European Union has recommended against it. At the time, Salvador Illa's government clarified that it was a framework agreement for services, and "not an equipment purchase." Sirt-Connecta obtained a higher score, so they won the bid. The contract includes the execution of the civil works, the provision of equipment as a service, and the tasks necessary to establish and manage the connectivity. The appeal filed by Telefónica and Cellnex, which planned to use European Nokia technology, has been submitted jointly to the Public Contracts Tribunal of Catalonia and could lead to the project being halted until a decision is reached. Government sources confirm they have received the appeal filed by Telefónica and Cellnex. "This is a possibility contemplated within the framework of the standard and rigorous administrative process for a public tender such as this. Now, the procedure will continue following the processes and mechanisms established by law," these sources indicate. Huawei, in the EU's crosshairs

The European Commission has long been waging an offensive against the Chinese multinational, following the lead of the United States, which has resulted in the company facing severe restrictions. The Commission considers Huawei to pose a sufficiently high risk to the security of the European Union to justify excluding it from the deployment of 5G networks in member states, a recommendation that some countries, such as Lithuania, have adopted. However, the warning does not constitute a ban on the company.In this regard, the Catalan government indicated that the contract under scrutiny concerns fiber optics, not 5G. One of the main reasons behind the US and Brussels' crusade against the tech giant is the never-proven assumption that Huawei leaks information to the Chinese government or even facilitates espionage. Since 2017, China has required its companies to provide intelligence services with all requested information. In any case, Huawei has managed to secure contracts worldwide because it offers lower prices and high technical quality. In this way, it has gained ground while other companies, including European ones (Ericsson and Nokia), have lost ground. Now that Europe is seeking to safeguard its strategic autonomy, especially in telecommunications and security, Brussels sees this as a problem. The Generalitat's project aims to leverage and strengthen its publicly owned fiber optic network (which will exceed 8,000 km by 2025). It will connect 5,419 Generalitat public service offices to this robust, high-quality network, under public governance. Combined with the offices already connected, this will bring the total number of Generalitat public offices connected to the network to 6,164, resulting in significant cost savings.