Mobile phone providers in French Polynesia say a French order to remove Chinese-made equipment at the heart of their system is obsolete.
Pacific Mobile Telecom, which operates Vodafone in Tahiti, says it has already removed hardware supplied by Huawei of China.
The order was issued by France's national agency in charge of information system security and applies to a number of operators in overseas departments and territories.
The news site Tahiti Infos says the move appears to be economically motivated and aimed to help Alcatel-Lucent, which has been shedding thousands of jobs.
Alcatel is also reported to be a target of US surveillance activity, which has strained relations between Washington and Paris.
