UK to stop installation of 5G network equipment from all ‘high risk vendors, including Huawei from next September

The UK government has announced that Telecoms providers must stop installing Huawei equipment in the UK’s 5G networks from September 2021. The announcement comes ahead of the Telecommunications (Security) Bill being tabled before the parliament.

As per the Guardian report, Secretary of State for Digital Oliver Dowden has set out a road-map to remove high-risk vendors which includes the Chinese government controlled enterprise Huawei. The said road-map will be included in the Telecommunications (Security) Bill which will come up for discussion in the parliament. The legislation would create national security powers capable of imposing controls on when – if at all – a telecoms firm could use material supplied by companies such as Huawei.

The Guardian report says that UK also plans to remove all Huawei equipment from 5G networks by 2027. The  Secretary of State for Digital has confirmed that operators must stop installing Huawei equipment in 5G networks from the end of September next year, except for maintaining previously-installed Huawei equipment. These decisions that would be enshrined in law by the new bill.

Apart from banning high-risk vendors like Huawei, the UK is also launching a new 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy, which will establish paths to bring new vendors into the market. The strategy by UK is to ensure that its 5G network has equipment made from broad number of different companies in order to boost security. This will also ensure that UK is not reliant on one or two established companies. The UK government also hopes that this move will give a boost to local innovation and generate jobs within the country.  

Several countries in Europe and across the world have banned use of equipment from Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE over security and surveillance concerns. Many countries including the US, UK, have banned Huawei from participating in the 5G trials. Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan are other major countries to have banned Huawei and ZTE from 5G trials and equipment.

While countries like France and Germany have not out rightly banned the Chinese manufacturers and telecom companies from 5G, they have put them under surveillance and have planned for tougher oversight of telecoms network vendors.