Deutsche Telekom on Wednesday said the mooted timeline on Germany imposing curbs on the use of China's Huawei in its network by 2026 were not realistic, highlighting Britain's drawn-out attempts to do so.

In a statement to Reuters, Deutsche Telekom questioned the need to take action that could result in a significant drop in quality of service to customers.

Earlier a government official said Germany's interior ministry plans to force telecoms operators to slash the use of equipment from Huawei and ZTE in their 5G networks after a review highlighted an over-reliance on these Chinese suppliers.