Deutsche Bahn wants to digitise its operations and 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.

Spiegel magazine said that the state-owned Deutsche Bahn 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 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.

The move is part of a general campaign by the US government to shut out competition from the Chinese in favour of US businesses. It claims that the Chinese are using Huawei gear to spy on everyone, but so far have been unable to find any proof.  That has not stopped the EU purging the cheaper Chinese gear and replacing it with more costly telecom solutions.

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.