The United Kingdom has today banned the use of Huawei 5G equipment by telecommunication carriers in the region. As announced by the UK Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden, mobile operators are banned from buying Huawei 5G Equipment after 31st December 2020.
Apart from not buying Huawei equipment after 31st December 2020, operators are further required to remove any Installed Huawei Equipment by 2027.
Indirectly, the move is aimed at stopping Huawei’s involvement in UK’s 5G rollout phase since operators can still buy equipment before 31st December 2020, but will be required to Uninstall the purchased equipment by 2027.
This means operators will have to Ignore the purchase of Huawei equipment even before 2021, and choose Nokia which is an alternate provider.
Accordingly, Mr. Dowden inked that, the transition from Huawei equipment is expected to taken full effect within 2 years.
This has not been an easy decision, but it is the right one for the UK telecoms networks, for our national security and our economy, both now and indeed in the long run
The Side Effect of UK’s ban on Huawei 5G equipment
UK is known to be a strong United States (US) ally, and the ban of Huawei can be greatly attributed to the fact that the Chinese Telecommunications giant was banned by the Trump Administration.
However, the same way the US shot itself in the foot by imposing restrictions making it hard for Huawei to acquire Chips necessary in the manufacture of 5G equipment. It’s the same way that the UK which was on the verge of having 5G by 2021 will delay by at least by a year or two.
Although issues related to National Security have been brought to light as key spices making the Huawei ban inevitable. The fact that Huawei leads in 5G deployment will cost countries loyal to the UK by delaying their switch from 4G to 5G.
With 2021 shared as the deadline for UK Operators to remove all Huawei equipment from their Networks, the move is contrary to the country’s January proposal of introducing a cap on Huawei’s Market share, but still, trust it as a supplier.