Expanding Support for 5G Clean Network Initiative

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Washington has been alarmed by Beijing’s dominance in the 5G infrastructure market and has pressed its allies to exclude China’s Huawei Technologies. The State Department’s Clean Network initiative announced in April seeks to eliminate “long-term threats to data privacy, security, and human rights posed to the free world from authoritarian malign actors, such as the Chinese Communist Party”.

Bulgaria has recently joined the “growing coalition of countries and companies committed to protecting their 5G networks from untrusted vendors.” Bulgaria and the United States signed a declaration on security of next generation 5G mobile telecoms networks, which should ensure protected and clean communications.

The Clean Network is rooted in internationally accepted digital trust standards. It represents the execution of a multi-year, all-of-government, enduring strategy, built on a coalition of trusted partners, and based on rapidly changing technology and economics of global markets.

27 of the 30 NATO member states are already members of the Clean Network.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said the European Union has already provided guidelines on 5G network security and that they should be built on fair competition and transparency.

The Bulgarian government’s statement did not mention any specific vendors or what the document would mean for Bulgarian telecoms operators that will develop the 5G networks, according to usnews.com.