For more than a year, the UK had been facing a lot of pressure from countries that have political tensions with China, including the US, to ban the famous Chinese telecommunications vendor from the UK’s 5G networks. The UK government had announced in July 2020 that they will be removing Huawei’s equipment kit from the entire 5G network by the year 2027. To appease their allies, the UK government had initial plans to remove Huawei’s kit from the most sensitive core part of the 5G network and to let the remaining, almost 30-35% of the equipment untouched on the non-sensitive and non-core part of the network by 2023.
However, now, the plans have changed altogether. The UK government has announced that all telecom providers will have to stop installing any equipment from Huawei in the UK’s 5G network from September 2021. The equipment that has already been installed may remain as it is for the time being though, although there are high chances that the UK government may eventually ask to uninstall all of it from the 5G networks too.
However, this change in plans will have the telecom providers and networks to be on their toes now to adjust their schedules for the deployment of 5G equipment that was being supplied by Huawei.
The Digital Secretary, Oliver Dowden said that the UK government is preparing a roadmap to completely remove all the high-risk vendors from its 5G networks, and of course, amongst these high-risk vendors, Huawei tops the list, as it is alleged to be a risk to the national security because of its origin being Chinese and its probable connection with the Chinese government.
Huawei keeps refuting these claims and continues to say that these bans and allegations are all baseless. The company has even dismissed the US and all its allies from their concerns regarding Huawei being a threat to their national security. The company’s vice president, Victor Zhang has even claimed that the UK’s decision to remove Huawei from its 5G networks is not at all fair, as it is based on political motivation and alliance only, and not on any fair judgment based on real risk evaluation.
Even now, after this announcement from the UK government, Huawei has decided to refrain from commenting on this issue.
This new Telecommunication Security Bill is going to be debated upon by the MPs in the Commons on 1st December 2020. There are chances that this bill may become a law to completely banish Huawei from the UK.
If this bill is passed, then the new law will empower the UK government to control all the big UK telecommunications provider companies from employing or installing equipment from threats like Huawei.
The UK government will not only get a lot of control, but they will also impose big fines on the telecom provider companies if they use or install any equipment from ‘dangerous’ vendors like Huawei. The fine could be around 100,000 pounds per day or 10% of their turnover.
Oliver Dowden thinks that these powers and control that the UK government will get through the passing of this bill will help the government identifying and banning any telecom equipment which may turn into a national security risk.
A New Diversification Strategy in Making
Oliver Dowden also shed light on the UK government’s plans to publish a new strategy that will allow UK’s own telecoms suppliers and vendors to come forward with new, diversified, and highly innovative plans and equipment for the 5G networks. This move will make sure that the UK never again has to rely on some big names in the telecoms market for the smooth and completely secured functioning of their networks.
To bring this plan into action, the government has announced to spend an initial amount of 250 million pounds to set up a National Telecoms Lab for research. This money will also be used in investment into open radio technology.
I’m Ava Paul, an experienced news website author with a special focus on the entertainment section. Over the past five years, I have worked in various positions of media and communication at World Stock Market. My experience has given me extensive knowledge in writing, editing, researching and reporting on stories related to the entertainment industry.
