BT warns of outages if UK bans Huawei too fast
BT chief Philip Jansen today issued a warning to the government that removing Huawei from the UK’s telecoms network too soon could case mass service outages across the country.
A decision is due this week from Number 10 on whether to impose tougher restrictions on China’s Huawei, after intense pressure from the US to ban the firm’s equipment from being used in 5G networks.
“If you are to try not to have Huawei at all, ideally we would want seven years and we could probably do it in five,” Jansen told the BBC.
Asked what the risks would be if telecoms operators were told to do it in less than five years, Jansen said: “We need to make sure that any change of direction does not lead to more risk in the short term.”
“If we get to a situation where things need to go very, very fast, then you are into a situation where potentially service for 24m BT Group mobile customers is put into question — outages,” he added.
Executives from BT and Vodafone told ministers last week that to remove Huawei from the UK’s telecoms network will cost “billions” of pounds.
BT’s chief technology officer Howard Watson said the firm was already trialling a move for some of its network sites from Huawei to other vendors.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had in January granted Huawei a limited role in the 5G network, despite the risk of antagonising US President Donald Trump.
However growing scepticism of China’s role in the early stages of the coronavirus crisis and an ongoing row over Hong Kong has changed the mood in London.
Trump has repeatedly alleged that technology made by Huawei could be used by Beijing for spying. Huawei has stringently denied the claims.
The National Cyber Security Centre, a branch of GCHQ, is now reviewing the role Huawei should play in the UK’s telecom networks following pressure from both sides of the Atlantic.