ANSSI, the French agency for information systems security, has severely tightened authorizations for vital infrastructure. Though Huawei is still kosher in many network functions, French telcos have had to remove a few thousand nodes they had already deployed, especially in network cores. All authorizations are temporary - between three and eight years.

This is not just about security in a narrow definition, but in a large part about ensuring that mastery of strategic functions remains with European firms.

Like armaments, telecommunication infrastructures are not a normal market.