<p>Vodafone's Italian unit has secured conditional approval from Rome to use equipment made by China's Huawei in its 5G radio access network, two sources close to the matter said.</p>.<p>Italy can block or impose tough conditions on deals involving non-EU vendors under "golden powers", which have been used three times since 2012 to block foreign interest in industries deemed to be of strategic importance.</p>.<p>The government of national unity led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi authorised the deal between Vodafone and Huawei on May 20, one of the two sources told <em>Reuters</em>, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.</p>.<p>As in similar deals, the government imposed a set of prescriptions including restrictions on remote intervention by Huawei to fix technical glitches and an extremely high security threshold, the source added.</p>.<p>Vodafone and Huawei declined to comment.</p>.<p>The United States has lobbied Italy and other European allies to avoid using Huawei equipment in their next-generation telecoms networks and to closely scrutinize rival ZTE, saying the companies could pose a security risk.</p>.<p>Huawei and ZTE strongly deny the allegations.</p>.<p>In the last 12 months, Italy has adopted a tougher stance on Huawei, while not banning it entirely from 5G infrastructure.</p>.<p>Under previous Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Rome prevented telecoms group Fastweb in October from signing a deal with Huawei to supply equipment for its 5G core network, where highly sensitive data is processed.</p>
<p>Vodafone's Italian unit has secured conditional approval from Rome to use equipment made by China's Huawei in its 5G radio access network, two sources close to the matter said.</p>.<p>Italy can block or impose tough conditions on deals involving non-EU vendors under "golden powers", which have been used three times since 2012 to block foreign interest in industries deemed to be of strategic importance.</p>.<p>The government of national unity led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi authorised the deal between Vodafone and Huawei on May 20, one of the two sources told <em>Reuters</em>, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.</p>.<p>As in similar deals, the government imposed a set of prescriptions including restrictions on remote intervention by Huawei to fix technical glitches and an extremely high security threshold, the source added.</p>.<p>Vodafone and Huawei declined to comment.</p>.<p>The United States has lobbied Italy and other European allies to avoid using Huawei equipment in their next-generation telecoms networks and to closely scrutinize rival ZTE, saying the companies could pose a security risk.</p>.<p>Huawei and ZTE strongly deny the allegations.</p>.<p>In the last 12 months, Italy has adopted a tougher stance on Huawei, while not banning it entirely from 5G infrastructure.</p>.<p>Under previous Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Rome prevented telecoms group Fastweb in October from signing a deal with Huawei to supply equipment for its 5G core network, where highly sensitive data is processed.</p>