Huawei ban would cost German rail operator 400 million eur – Spiegel

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s national railway operator would have to spend up to 400 million euros ($437.44 million) to replace all the components in its infrastructure supplied by Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, Spiegel magazine reported on Friday.

Deutsche Bahn, which is state-owned, would face delays of five to six years for its projects if the German government decided to ban Huawei components in the short term, the report said, citing an internal company document.

A spokesperson for Deutsche Bahn said the company would not comment on internal documents.

The German government is currently reviewing whether certain components from Huawei and ZTE should be banned from its telecoms networks, amid broader concerns about the influence of Chinese companies on critical infrastructure.

Any decision to ban Huawei outright would likely draw an angry response from Beijing, with the Chinese foreign ministry having urged Berlin to act in line with its own interests and international rules.

Deutsche Bahn, which is seeking to digitise its operations, last December awarded a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary a 64-million-euro contract to supply most of the components for its new IP network to a company using technology from Huawei.

($1 = 0.9144 euros)

(Reporting by Rachel More; Editing by Miranda Murray)