MP Oliver Dowden has announced that Government is ordering telecoms companies to stop using 5g technology supplies by Chinese company Huawei.
Dowden announced that Chinese vendors are deemed as a ‘high risk’ to security and they feel the UK can no longer be confident they can secure 5g technology which would be supplied by Huawei.
Government are now ‘advising’ that from the end of this year, telecoms providers must not buy or install Huawei in the telecoms network, with it becoming a crime to do so in the future. The government now want all Huawei 5g (and other) technology completely removed from British networks by 2026.
Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “5G will be transformative for our country, but only if we have confidence in the security and resilience of the infrastructure it is built upon.
“Following US sanctions against Huawei and updated technical advice from our cyber experts, the government has decided it is necessary to ban Huawei from our 5G networks.
“No new kit is to be added from January 2021, and UK 5G networks will be Huawei free by the end of 2027. This decisive move provides the industry with the clarity and certainty it needs to get on with delivering 5G across the UK.
“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.”
Government states they will now seek to legislate at the earliest opportunity with a new Telecoms Security Bill.
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