A defence agreement set to be approved by the Danish parliament has potential consequences for users of the Danish telecommunications network as well as telecommunications companies, according to specialist media IT Watch.
Lars Dittmann, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) specialising in network technology and service platforms, told IT Watch that the Danish government is proposing to give the US military broad powers to use Danish radio frequencies.
“The problem is that the legislative proposal includes no limitations. And it doesn’t distinguish between wartime and peacetime,” he said.
The defence agreement between Denmark and the United States is expected to be adopted by parliament at a vote on June 11th.
The defence agreement, which will permit the US to station soldiers in Denmark, was agreed with the US during the administration of former president Joe Biden and is expected to be adopted given it has majority support.
The agreement was first announced in December 2023 and was initially seen as relatively uncontroversial. Events since, notably President Donald Trump’s pursuit of Greenland and statements on the war between Ukraine and Russia, have resulted in a shift in relations between Washington and Copenhagen. That has led to the deal being questioned by some opposition politicians.
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Dittmann cited a draft regulation from the Danish Agency for Digital Government (Digitaliseringsstyrelsen), which is currently under consultation.
According to ITWatch, the draft states that the United States is “permitted to use the instruments and services deemed necessary to ensure full access to… its own telecommunications systems, and to use all necessary frequencies for this purpose.”
It also says that American forces can “coordinate the use of frequencies with the administrative representative of Denmark, unless this is not possible due to urgent operational circumstances.”
Dittmann said he believes that these provisions could mean the United States gets unregulated access to an area that is usually tightly controlled.
This is because during military exercises it is normal practice for a military unit to occupy specific frequencies with its telecommunications systems. That would mean ordinary Danes within a certain radius may find themselves unable to connect to mobile networks while the exercise is underway, he said.
An interest group for the Danish telecommunications industry, Teleindustrien, also expressed concern.
“The wording of the legislation is cause for concern, at least in principle. How much practical disruption it will cause, I can’t say,” director Jakob Willer told IT Watch.
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