The UK announced Tuesday that it will ban Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from its 5G network, a change in a decision earlier this year.
The UK had said in January that Huawei’s technology could be used outside of “core” 5G networks, but it changed directions after intense national and international pressure, especially from the United States.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said Tuesday while speaking in Parliament that mobile network operators in the UK would have to stop buying equipment from Huawei by the end of the year.
Those operators will also need to extract all Huawei equipment from their systems by 2027, he said.
Dowden warned that the change would likely cause delays in the implementation of fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies, as well as additional costs, given Huawei’s technological dominance in space.
“As the facts have changed, our approach has also changed,” he said. “This has not been an easy decision, but it is the right one for the UK’s telecommunications networks, for our national security and our economy, both now and in the long term.”
Dowden may have been referring to the new restrictions imposed on Huawei by the US in May, making it difficult for the company to obtain key chip equipment from US suppliers.
Even before those restrictions, US lawmakers pushed hard for the UK to reverse its January decision.
Multiple agencies in the US have viewed the Chinese company as a threat to national security, and intelligence officials have expressed concern over the Chinese Communist Party’s access to networks built by Huawei.
A company spokesman called the UK decision on Tuesday “disappointing”.
“It threatens to take Britain into the digital slow line, raise the bills and deepen the digital divide. Instead of ‘leveling’, the government is leveling and we urge them to reconsider,” Huawei spokesman said in a statement. to The Hill.
“We remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or safety of the products we supply to the United Kingdom.”
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