Vodafone has denied a report saying Huawei could have allowed unauthorised access to its fixed-line network in 2011 and 2012.
A report by Bloomberg had stated that Vodafone had spotted the security flaws that could have given Chinese company Huawei access to Italian homes and businesses.
The US has refused to use Huawei for security reasons, although the report suggests that the UK may help them build a 5G network.

In a statement Vodafone said:

“The issues in Italy identified in the Bloomberg story were all resolved and date back to 2011 and 2012.

"The 'backdoor' that Bloomberg refers to is Telnet, which is a protocol that is commonly used by many vendors in the industry for performing diagnostic functions. It would not have been accessible from the internet."

"Bloomberg is incorrect in saying that this 'could have given Huawei unauthorised access to the carrier's fixed-line network in Italy'.

"In addition, we have no evidence of any unauthorised access. This was nothing more than a failure to remove a diagnostic function after development.

"The issues were identified by independent security testing, initiated by Vodafone as part of our routine security measures, and fixed at the time by Huawei."

The 5G network will gradually be introduced into the UK, being integrated into the already countrywide 4G network. This means that excluding Huawei at this stage isn’t realistic without large delays and costs.