By Ben Kerrigan –
UK’s mobile providers are being banned from buying new Huawei 5G equipment after 31 December, and have been told they must also remove all the Chinese firm’s 5G kit from their networks by 2027.
The decision follows sanctions imposed by Washington, which claims the firm poses a national security threat – something Huawei denies.
British telecomms companies will be told not to buy any new Huawei 5G equipment from December 31, the Government has confirmed.
And legal changes will make its purchase illegal in the coming months, Media Secretary Oliver Dowden has told MPs.
Mr. Dowden declared that the company would not be allowed to install any new equipment from next year – delaying the roll out and raising the cost of the project.
He told MP’s that the ban “will delay rollout by a further year and will add up to half a billion to the costs”
He added that: “Requiring operators to remove Huawei equipment from their 5G networks by 2027 will add hundreds of millions to the cost and further delay roll out.
“This means a cumulative delay to 5G rollout of two to three years and costs of up to two billion pounds.”
Pre-existing Huawei technology in 3G, 4G and fibreoptic broadband infrastructure will remain in place.
Delay
Mr Dowden said the move would delay the country’s 5G rollout by a year.
“This has not been an easy decision, but it is the right one for the UK telecoms networks, for our national security and our economy, both now and indeed in the long run,” he said.
Because the U.S sanctions only affect future equipment, the government does not believe there is a security justification for removing 2G, 3G and 4G equipment supplied by Huawei.
Huawei described the move was: “bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone” and threatened to “move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide”.
New restrictions are also being applied to use of the company’s broadband kit.The government wants operators to “transition away” from purchasing new Huawei equipment for use in the full-fibre network.
Mr Dowden said he expected this to happen within two years. He explained that additional time was being provided for broadband to avoid the UK becoming dependent on Nokia as the single supplier of some equipment.
In relation to the new U.S restrictions, he said: ”we remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of the products we supply to the UK.
“Regrettably our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy and not security.
“Over the past 20 years, Huawei has focused on building a better connected UK. As a responsible business, we will continue to support our customers as we have always done.
“We will conduct a detailed review of what today’s announcement means for our business here and will work with the UK government to explain how we can continue to contribute to a better connected Britain.”
Chip concerns
The UK last reviewed Huawei’s role in its telecoms infrastructure in January, when it was decided to let the firm remain a supplier but introduced a cap on its market share.
New sanctions imposed in May by the US to disrupt Huawei’s ability to get its own chips manufactured led security officials to review their position with respect to the security of their products.
This led security officials to conclude they could no longer assure the security of its products if the company had to start sourcing chips from third-parties for use in its equipment.
The minister cited a review carried out by GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre as being the motivation for the changes.
“Huawei claims to have stockpiles of parts that they can use, but this obviously affects what the NCSC can say about their products going forward,” blogged Dr Ian Levy, the agency’s technical director.
“We think that Huawei products that are adapted to cope with the [sanctions] are likely to suffer more security and reliability problems because of the massive engineering challenge ahead of them, and it will be harder for us to be confident in their use within our mitigation strategy.”
But other political considerations are also likely to have also come into play including the UK’s desire to strike a trade deal with the US, and growing tensions with China over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak and its treatment of Hong Kong.
Some backbench Tory MPs had pressed for a shorter time-span for its removal, in particular there had been calls for the 5G ban to come into effect before the next election in May 2024.
Mr Dowden said that “the shorter we make the timetable for removal, the greater the risk of actual disruption to mobile phone networks”.
BT and Vodafone had warned that customers could face mobile blackouts if they were forced to remove all of Huawei’s 5G kit in less time.