FINNISH telecom gear maker Nokia is ready to replace Huawei equipment in Britain, the head of Nokia Britain said on Tuesday following the UK’s decision to stop using the Chinese manufacturer.
“We have the capacity and expertise to replace all of the Huawei equipment in the UK’s networks at scale and speed, and are ready to step up to support the implementation of the UK government decision with minimal impact on the people using our customers’ networks,” Cormac Whelan said.
Huawei meanwhile said Britain’s “disappointing” decision to ban the use of its equipment in its 5G networks was “bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone” and threatened to put the country into the digital slow lane.
It urged the government to reconsider.
“We remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of the products we supply to the UK,” a spokesman said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered Huawei equipment to be purged completely from Britain’s 5G network by 2027, risking the ire of China by signalling that the world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker is no longer welcome in the West.
The seven-year lag will please British telecoms operators such as BT, Vodafone and Three, which had feared they would be forced to spend billions of pounds to rip out Huawei equipment much faster. But it will delay the rollout of 5G.
The United States had long pushed Johnson to reverse a decision he made in January to grant Huawei a limited role in 5G. London has also been dismayed by a crackdown in Hong Kong and the perception that China did not tell the whole truth over the coronavirus.
Britain’s National Security Council (NSC), chaired by Johnson, decided on Tuesday to ban the purchase 5G components from the end of this year and to order the removal of all existing Huawei gear from the 5G network by 2027. – July 14, 2020, Reuters
