Earlier this year, the U.K. government decided to let Huawei build 5G infrastructure in the country, although the company’s trade ban fiasco had created political and technological unrest between the Chinese company and its international customers.
However, reportedly the U.K. might phase out its adoption of Chinese tech and revoke its decision of allowing Huawei to supply for the country’s 5G network. This news comes after reports of Chinese telecom giant’s equipment becoming less safe after the implementation of recent U.S. sanctions were published.
According to Bloomberg, the U.K. Prime Minister is preparing to phase out Huawei as soon as this year. The U.K. government details:
We are considering the impact the U.S.’s additional sanctions against Huawei could have on U.K. networks. This is an ongoing process, and we will update it further in due course.
Talking to Bloomberg, Huawei VP Victor Zhang said:
We are working closely with our customers to find ways of managing the proposed U.S. restrictions so the U.K. can maintain its current lead in 5G. We believe it is too early to determine the impact of the proposed restrictions, which are not about security, but about the market position.
Initially, the U.K.’s plans included allowing Huawei to be a supplier only for the non-core elements of the network. Moreover, the company was only limited to providing 35 percent of the of the total supply. This was done since there was a lack of viable alternatives to Huawei’s technology, which is already widely prevalent in British communications networks.
