Huawei responds to the U.K ban – Britain could move into the digital slow lane

Earlier today, the British government announced the ban of Huawei’s equipment from its 5G network. In an official response, the Chinese manufacturer said that this decision is “bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone”. According to Huawei’s spokesperson, Ed Brewster, this decision could slow down the U.K’s 5G development. Huawei believes that “this is about US trade policy and not security”. Furthermore, the company says that it’s regrettable that the U.K choose to be leveling down instead of up.

Here is the full statement from Huawei on the U.K ban

This disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone. It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills, and deepen the digital divide. Instead of ‘levelling up’ the government is levelling down and we urge them to reconsider. We remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of the products we supply to the UK.

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Regrettably, our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy and not security. Over the past 20 years, Huawei has focused on building a better connected UK. As a responsible business, we will continue to support our customers as we have always done.

We will conduct a detailed review of what today’s announcement means for our business here and will work with the UK government to explain how we can continue to contribute to a better connected Britain

According to the British government, Huawei’s 5G products are currently based on many American technologies. The recent sanctions by the U.S mean that Huawei’s supply will be affected. Technical experts of the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) believe that this will force Huawei to reconfigure its supply chain. However, the British government does not have sufficient confidence in any of Huawei’s alternatives. Furthermore, the U.K government believes that “new restrictions make it impossible to guarantee the security of Huawei equipment in the future”.

Here is a summary of the decision by the U.K to ban Huawei

• The purchase of all Huawei 5G equipment must cease after December 31st, 2020
• All pre-existing Huawei Huawei equipment must not be in the U.K’s 5G network by the end of 2027.
• Those who chose to use Huawei between now and 2027 must not have its equipment in the sensitive ‘core’ parts of the 5G network.
• A statement from the Digital Secretary, Oliver Dowden reads “By the time of the next election we will have implemented in law an irreversible path for the complete removal of Huawei equipment from our 5G networks”.