German authorities were rumoured to be hatching a plan to help Deutsche Telekom enter China’s mobile market, WirtschaftsWoche reported, with speculation the move could be part of a deal related to Germany’s 5G policies.

The publication did not divulge what shape Deutsche Telekom’s involvement in China’s mobile market could take, with the operator already offering enterprise services in the country through affiliate T-Systems P R China.

Its current offering in the country is focused on provision of data centre and cloud services. The business has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Hong Kong.

WirtschaftsWoche noted there are concerns in the European Commission the encouragement of Deutsche Telekom to play a greater role in China was related to Germany’s open stance on China’s network vendors providing 5G equipment.

The rumours come as Germany is preparing new cybersecurity rules, which could provide restrictions on vendors for 5G networks.

However, Bloomberg reported today (28 September) despite continued US pressure, Germany was unlikely to follow the UK and a range of other nations in imposing measures to outwardly or effectively ban Huawei.

Senior politicians in Germany including Chancellor Angela Merkel have repeatedly dismissed calls for a ban on Huawei or any other specific network vendor.