Update: The Italian Ministry of Economic Development posted officially that the news below, reported by La Stampa and Reuters, is fake. The official statement goes: “With reference to press articles on an alleged banning of Huawei and ZTE companies from Italy in view of the adoption of 5G technology, the Ministry of Economic Development denies its intention to take any initiative in this regard. National security is a priority, and in the event that critical issues arise – currently not revealed – the MiSE will evaluate the opportunity to take the appropriate initiatives“.

Huawei might have to increase its efforts, and expand them from just Poland the Britain, as more and more EU countries lay down roadblocks. Reuters is citing Italian publication La Stampa, and reports that Italy is about to ban both Huawei and ZTE from participating in building the country’s 5G network infrastructure. At this point we lost count of the countries and regions Huawei under heavy scrutiny, but it all started with the U.S., coincidence or not.

The paper cited claims that even though an agreement has been signed, the Italian government has an ace up its sleeve. It is called “golden powers”, and apparently allows the state to pull out of contract already signed, “without having to pay penalties”.

The paper cited sources as saying “strong pressure” had come from the United States.

Pocketnow is not a political blog, we solely focus on mobile technology, but, at this point, we’re wondering whether the U.S. has an agenda. “National security” has been mentioned as the reason for the status quo every time we report on another market making, or considering, a decision. Huawei has constantly denied Chinese state involvement, and the opposite parties have more often than not failed to provide relevant evidence.

Reuters notes that the Italian government has not yet commented on the matter. Still, this is a snowball-effect issue, and you can see it growing it size by following our coverage.