UK bans Huawei tech from 5G network

The UK government has ordered mobile companies to stop buying 5G equipment from China’s Huawei and remove any existing Huawei equipment from the network.

Leo Kelion reported the news for the BBC:

The UK’s mobile providers are being banned from buying new Huawei 5G equipment after 31 December, and they must also remove all the Chinese firm’s 5G kit from their networks by 2027.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden told the House of Commons of the decision.

It follows sanctions imposed by Washington, which claims the firm poses a national security threat – something Huawei denies.

Mr Dowden said the supply ban would delay the UK’s 5G rollout by a year.

CNN’s Hadas Gold wrote:

The decision is a big win for the Trump administration, which has been pushing allies to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks, arguing that the Chinese company is a threat to national security. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared last month that “the tide is turning against Huawei as citizens around the world are waking up to the danger of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state.”

But it risks a backlash from China as Britain looks for new trading opportunities around the world after Brexit, and will delay the rollout of 5G across the country by at least a year, Dowden said.

Bloomberg’s Kitty Donaldson and Thomas Seal noted:

U.K.’s ban on Huawei Technologies Co. from its next-generation mobile networks got a swift response from China.

Liu Xiaoming, China’s envoy to Britain, called the decision “disappointing and wrong,” and said it had become “questionable whether the U.K. can provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for companies from other countries.”