Carriers in the U.K. will officially be banned from installing Huawei 5G equipment after September 2021.
The U.K.’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport made the announcement, and the government has also released a plan to remove Huawei-built telecom gear by 2027.
“Today I am setting out a clear path for the complete removal of high-risk vendors from our 5G networks,” said Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden in the annoucement. “This will be done through new and unprecedented powers to identify and ban telecom equipment which poses a threat to our national security.”
Earlier this year in January, the U.K. granted the Chinese telecom a limited role in the deployment of its 5G networks, but later reversed its decision.
This decision comes as Canada is now the only member of the Five Eyes Alliance to not ban or restrict the use of Huawei 5G equipment. Other countries in the alliance are the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
The U.S. has been urging its allies to ban Huawei equipment from 5G deployment and has claimed that the Chinese company poses a security risk. Huawei has repeatedly rejected this accusation.
Opposition parties in Canada have passed a motion put forward by the Conservatives to call on the Liberal government to make a decision in its Huawei 5G security review.
The federal government hasn’t provided a timeline on when it may come to a decision regarding its Huawei 5G security review. A Huawei executive has said that the company is ready to honour the Canadian government’s decision, regardless of the outcome.
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