Vodafone's 5G service in Spain uses Huawei gear

United Kingdom telecom operator Vodafone will launch its 5G network services in 15 Spanish cities, including Madrid and Barcelona, on Saturday in cooperation with Chinese tech company Huawei Technologies Co.

The announcement means that Huawei is steadily securing votes of confidence from foreign companies despite the United States government's crackdown on the world's largest telecom equipment maker.

Vodafone said the move makes Spain one of a handful of countries in the world to commercialize the superfast technology and its 5G network will offer download speeds of up to 1 gigabits per second.