Huawei equipment installations to be banned in UK from September amid stockpiling concerns

Although British companies have already been barred from buying new equipment by the end of this year the new regulations would resolve concerns regarding the stockpiling of radio equipment for installation at a later date.

In the Commons today, in the second reading of the Telecommunications (Security) Bill, Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden will set out the government's plan for banning all Huawei equipment from the UK's 5G networks by 2027, which will make the ban lawful.

The move comes as backbench MPs, including those in the China Study Community of the Conservative Party, have called on the government to take a hardline approach to the firm.

The bill gives the government "new and unprecedented powers to identify and ban telecoms equipment which poses a threat to our national security" Mr. Dowden would say.

The ban on Huawei equipment leaves only two large-scale Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment suppliers operating in the British market: Ericsson and Nokia.

While the ban was imposed on security grounds, reliance on only two suppliers poses a major risk to the long-term security of UK networks, according to the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

The government has also announced that it would spend an initial £ 250 million to diversify this industry, with a new task force seeking to find a provider willing to fill the gap created by the 5G infrastructure ban in the United Kingdom.

The primary reason NCSC gave for initially evaluating that Britain's 5G networks were safer for including Huawei equipment as well as that manufactured by Ericsson and Nokia was the protection offered by a more diverse marketplace.

However, the NCSC was forced to update the risk posed by Huawei equipment following a decision by the White House to bar American companies from selling computer chips to Huawei - possibly forcing it to implement chips manufactured by less trusted manufacturers.

Huawei has criticized the US sanctions as "arbitrary and pernicious" which has reported that as a result, 40 percent of the positions within its enterprise business group in the UK are made redundant.

The roadmap also points out government support as part of the diversification strategy for a new trial with the Japanese technology giant NEC, which will test an Open RAN system in Wales in 2021.

Open RAN is a trend within the telecommunications industry that will encourage telecom companies to use multiple radio access network hardware providers, such as enabling the use of Nokia antennas with Ericsson base stations.

For a National Telecoms Lab, a new secure testing facility will be set up, and the government's plan will also state that business, academia and government will work together on research.

Publish : 2020-11-30 18:39:00

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