The move forces companies to stop buying new 5G equipment from Huawei next year (representation)
London:
Britain welcomed increasing pressure from the United States on Tuesday and ordered the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to gradually withdraw from its 5G network despite retaliation warnings from Beijing.
The reversal of policy gives a long-awaited victory to the administration of US President Donald Trump in its geopolitical standoff with China.
The White House said the decision “reflects a growing international consensus that Huawei and other unreliable suppliers pose a threat to national security, as they remain accountable to the Chinese Communist Party”.
But the move is likely to further damage Britain’s ties to Asian power and cost British mobile phone providers who have relied on Huawei equipment for nearly 20 years.
Huawei called it “politicized” and likely to put Britain “on the digital path”.
Chinese Ambassador to London Liu Xiaoming called it a “disappointing and wrong decision.”
“It has become doubtful whether the UK can provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for businesses in other countries,” he wrote on Twitter.
The political change in Britain’s digital future was made by Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a meeting with his cabinet and the National Security Council.
This forces companies to stop buying new 5G equipment from Huawei from next year and to remove existing equipment by the end of 2027.
“It was not an easy decision, but it was the right one for UK telecommunications networks, for our national security and our economy,” said digital minister Oliver Dowden in parliament.
– American sanctions –
Johnson angered Trump and upset some of his own conservative party by allowing China’s world leader in 5G technology to help deploy the new fast British data network in January.
The United Kingdom then completed its tortuous departure from the European Union and sought to establish solid links with powerful Asian economies which could concretize Johnson’s vision of a “Great Britain world“.
But the Trump administration has told the British government that its choice jeopardizes intelligence sharing because the British signals could be intercepted or manipulated by China.
Washington believes that private enterprise can also shut down 5G networks in rival countries under Beijing’s wartime orders.
Huawei has always denied this and highlighted two decades of cooperation with British security agencies that have verified the security of its existing 3G and 4G networks.
The British review was triggered by Washington sanctions in May that blocked Huawei’s access to American chips at the heart of 5G networks.
The sanctions had no impact on the former 3G and 4G providers and Great Britain has not changed its guidelines for these networks.
– “Faults” –
Johnson had been under increasing pressure to not only drain Huawei, but also to take a hard line with China for its treatment of Hong Kong and the suppression of ethnic Uighurs in western Xinjiang.
But he also made a commitment to voters last year to offer broadband access to all Britons by 2025.
British telecoms companies have been pushing hard against the policy reversal due to the cost of removing existing equipment and looking for untested alternatives.
Dowden conceded that the British will now have to wait longer to have full access to the new fast network.
“This means a cumulative delay in the deployment of 5G by two to three years and costs of up to 2 billion pounds sterling (2.5 billion dollars, 2.2 billion euros),” he said. declared.
“This will have real consequences for the connections on which all of our constituents rely.”
But officials have insisted that Huawei has only managed to install “a small amount” of equipment since the 5G system first became available to UK consumers last year.
– Diversification –
Johnson challenged the Trump administration to find a reliable and profitable alternative to the Chinese business.
Britain is pushing for the creation of a 5G club of nations which can pool its resources and provide individual components for an alternative solution which could be applied worldwide.
The British government has said the process will start with South Korean Samsung and Japanese NEC – two veterans with vast production capacities – while offering protection to Finnish Nokia and Swedish Ericsson to ensure they stay viable players in the field.
Ericsson regional manager Arun Bansal said his company is “ready to work with UK operators to meet their schedules without disrupting customers”.
Nokia’s general manager for the UK and Ireland, Cormac Whelan, said the company also has “the capacity and expertise to replace all Huawei equipment in the UK’s large-scale networks and high speed”.
But UK officials are warning that all of the existing players have Huawei equipment in their supply chains that must be taken into account.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
