French carrier Orange SA ruled out plans to work with and use telecom gears from China's Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to build its 5G mobile network, Bloomberg reported Dec. 12, citing Orange's CEO.

The decision reportedly makes the telco the first major European phone company to publicly announce its move against Huawei, as concerns mount about network security linked to its equipment.

Orange SA CEO Stéphane Richard said that despite Huawei having the greatest research and development resources, the decision is a matter of security.

The Australian government in August also banned Huawei from providing equipment for the country's planned 5G mobile network on national security grounds.

U.S. officials have long cautioned companies against using telecommunications equipment from certain Chinese companies.

Japan's SoftBank Corp. is also working to remove equipment made by Huawei from its 4G network.