Huawei’s networking equipment will be phased out of UK 5G networks, the government announced today. Telecom operators will not be able to buy new 5G telecom equipment from the Chinese firm from January next year, and will have seven years to remove their existing technology from their 5G infrastructure at an expected cost of £ 2 billion. The announcement follows a new report on Huawei’s role in the UK’s national infrastructure from the UK’s National Center for Cyber Security.
The decision marks a U-turn from the government’s previous position, announced in January, which allowed the use of Huawei equipment in the country’s 5G infrastructure, with certain limitations. Under that position, Huawei would be limited to a 35 percent market share, and its equipment could not be used in central parts of the network or in geographically sensitive locations. Now, however, his team will be removed entirely from the country’s 5G networks.
UK digital, culture, media and sport secretary Oliver Dowden warned that the decision “will delay our launch of 5G.” As part of the announcement, the government said it is also recommending full-fiber broadband operators to abandon the purchase of Huawei equipment.
In recent months, the British government has seen increasing pressure, both domestically and internationally, to completely phase out the use of Huawei equipment. That pressure has been fueled by security experts’ concern that the Huawei team poses a national security risk by allowing Beijing to spy on Western countries. Huawei has strongly denied these allegations.
International pressure comes mainly from the United States. Huawei has been on the country’s “list of entities” since May 2019, which means that American companies cannot sell technology to the company. However, in May of this year, The New York Times reported that the United States tightened its stance with the announcement of new sanctions against Huawei. Under the new measures, which take effect in September, Huawei and its suppliers, such as chip maker TSMC, cannot use US technology to design or produce Huawei products. At the time, US officials characterized the measure as “closing a gap” through which Huawei could have previously used US technology.
These new measures could have a major impact on the products Huawei can produce, which critics say could make your equipment less safe to use. The restrictions “will force the company to use unreliable technology that could increase risk for the UK,” according to a security report that was leaked earlier this month.
For example, Huawei’s HiSilicon chipsets could be affected by the measures. BBC news reports that the semiconductor industry relies on Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software to automate the modern chip design process like Huawei’s Kirin 990 5G processor. However, the sanctions mean that this software can no longer be used in the design or production of Huawei’s chips, as top EDA developers have ties to the US According to Huawei, it is difficult for Huawei to produce its own high-end modern processors. BBC news, pushing it towards third-party chips which, it is argued, might be more difficult for UK cyber security officials to examine.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also faces pressure from within his own party. The government suffered the biggest defeat of its current mandate in March, when BBC news It reports that 38 conservative MPs voted against the government in favor of an amendment calling for an end to the use of Huawei equipment on the country’s 5G networks by 2023. An increasing number of conservative MPs claim that the equipment represents a national security risk. , potentially allowing Beijing to spy on the UK, according to the Financial times. Although the government won the vote, the incident pressured Johnson to take a tougher stance.
Responding to the news, a Huawei spokesperson called the decision “disappointing” and said the company is “certain” that the new US sanctions would not affect “the resilience or safety of the products we supply to the UK”. He claimed that they were driven by United States trade policy rather than security and urged the British government to reconsider its decision.
The news of a possible ban has been unpopular with telecommunications companies, many of which have already started using Huawei’s equipment to build their 5G networks. In comments later published in The GuardianBT’s chief executive Philip Jansen told BBC Radio 4’s Today show that it would be “impossible” to remove Huawei entirely from the country’s telecommunications infrastructure in the next decade and that it would take five to seven years to remove it from the network. 5G. Jansen warned that forcing the removal of Huawei equipment too quickly could create outages and security risks of its own.
Update July 14, 8:13 AM ET: Updated with Huawei’s response and more details from the government press release.
