Huawei is facing further trouble in the UK. The UK is currently considering banning the installation of 5G equipment in the area early next year.
A new report suggests that the UK may act faster and strengthen supervision of the Chinese tech giant to appease lawmakers.
According to a Bloomberg report, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has asked for stricter regulations on companies that use Huawei’s 5G equipment as part of the price to support telecom security legislation. The bill will be passed in Congress next week.
Prior to this, the initial plan was to allow the company to use Huawei equipment till 2027 and enforce the ban. At present, telecom operators are already stocking parts manufactured by the Chinese company and are also looking for alternatives.
But earlier bans may increase costs for companies like BT Group and Vodafone, which may now have accelerated the process of overhauling components from their network infrastructure.
If the new proposal is passed, the ban will take effect in September 2021. It is worth noting that the UK has previously imposed restrictions on the purchase of Huawei equipment by network operators, and the restrictions will take effect after December.
Initially, Huawei only got a limited role in China’s 5G building, but due to opposition, the decision was overturned.
The United States has also been pressing Britain to take stricter actions against telecommunications equipment providers on the grounds of national security risks and Chinese government espionage.
As Huawei withdraws from the 5G race in the UK, operators will have to turn to rivals Nokia and Ericsson. We will have to wait and see what kind of decision the Parliament will make on this matter, so please stay tuned for more updates.
