Actual Cost of EU Removing Chinese Telecom Equipment Could Be Triple Official Estimates
Claire Weston
A GSMA Intelligence report estimates the total cost for EU carriers to strip out Huawei and ZTE equipment at €30–40 billion — roughly triple the European Commission's own figure. The gap comes down to scope: the Commission counted only mobile networks, while the industry study added fixed broadband and transport networks.
Where does the €30–40 billion figure come from?
The report was commissioned by seven European carrier groups — including Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, and Orange — and published on July 23.
Its data draws on internal figures from operators covering nearly half of the EU's mobile connections, not modelled projections.
This means → it is not an industry lobby number but an estimate grounded in first-party operational data, giving it more weight in the legislative debate.
The Commission estimated only €10–13 billion — where is the gap?
The Commission's impact assessment covered only mobile networks, putting the cost at €3.4–4.3 billion per year over a three-year transition — roughly €10–13 billion in total.
GSMA Intelligence added fixed broadband and transport networks, nearly tripling the total.
In plain terms = the official figure counted only the "cell-tower" layer; the industry added "home broadband gear" and "the data pipes between sites" — together those two layers account for roughly €14–17 billion of the difference.
How does the cost break down across the three layers?
Mobile networks: €16–22 billion, mainly base stations and other network hardware — the largest share.
Transport networks (carrying traffic between sites): €9–12 billion.
Fixed broadband equipment (including fibre-access gear): approximately €5 billion, counted separately.
What does this mean for the legislative process?
Brussels is pushing a revised EU Cybersecurity Act that would require carriers to remove high-risk vendor equipment within three years of enactment; the bill is still under legislative review.
The report characterises the mandate as "one of the most significant structural interventions in European telecoms in decades."
This means → the nearly threefold gap between the official estimate and the industry's own calculation will become the central bargaining variable between carriers and regulators — operators now hold a harder-to-dismiss invoice at the negotiating table.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.