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UK telcos come out in support of Huawei, but pressure from the US could still see the UK government limit Huawei’s involvement in 5G
The UK government is considering implementing a 50 per cent cap on Huawei’s involvement in the country’s 5G network rollout later this year, according to reports in the British press.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the government is preparing to recommend the cap as part of its security review, due to be published later this spring.
While details at this stage are scant, the recommendation appears to suggest that the cap would apply to the radio access network, as well as the networks core. The UK has a long-standing policy of not allowing Huawei to be involved in its network cores, so the move to extend the cap to the radio access network will not be great news for the Chinese tech giant.
UK based telcos have come out in support of Huawei in recent weeks, with both Vodafone and BT emphasising the positive effect that Huawei has had on enabling the country’s 3G and 4G networks.
However, the UK government has come under increasing pressure from the US, who want to see Huawei banned from European 5G networks entirely. The US maintains that using Chinese kit in a country’s 5G network infrastructure poses a security risk. As the US’ trade war with China rumbles on, it is yet to provide any evidence whatsoever to substantiate these claims.
Huawei is yet to comment publicly on the news and is not expected to do so until the UK government publishes its security recommendations in the coming weeks.
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