BT asks for more time before ousting comms kit
British Telecom (BT) has asked the government if Huawei’s controversial telecoms kit can have a stay of execution at the core of the UK’s telecoms infrastructure. Howard Watson, the CTO for BT (EE) confessed that the operator wants more time before it removes Huawei’s kit from its national broadband and mobile network and replaces it with Ericsson equipment. “At the end of the day, not interrupting service for customers is the critical requirement here,” said Watson.
Huawei to talk?
In 2019 Huawei was identified as a high-risk vendor and in 2020 British Prime Minister Theresa May banned Huawei from supplying core parts of 5G networks in the UK after the US’s Central Intelligence Agency unearthed “strong” indications, but not absolute proof, that the Chinese Government owned vendor was a double agent. The decision was made after a meeting of ministers with the National Security Council. The Chinese vendor, widely seen as the leader in 5G technology, was allowed to supply some “none-core” element of the UK’s 5G networks.
Agile agent
However Scott Petty, CTO at Vodafone UK at the time, warned that banning Huawei from the Radio Access Network alone would cost “hundreds of millions”, delay deployment “significantly” and “dramatically affect our 5G business case”. Some say 5G will be put back three years, at a cost of £2billion to the industry. BT alone, with its Huawei boxes in its telecoms infrastructure, will lose £500m hit from the upheaval. However, the ban came into force from 31st December 2020. This was the date when operators had to stop buying new Huawei kit and start removing all existing 5G kit. The deadline for completion was set for the end of 2027. But BT’s engineers are running late.
CIA
In February Californian tech consultancy Business Efficiency Solutions (BES) accused Huawei of using its equipment to create a backdoor to spy after they had teamed up to overhaul the IT and comms systems of the Punjab Police Integrated Command, Control and Communication Center (PPIC3) of Lahore, Pakistan. The US District Court in Santa Ana, California court heard that the Pakistan government invited tenders from a range of companies including Motorola, Nokia, and Huawei, to modernise the police’s technology but that Huawei had created a secret backdoor and stolen “data important to Pakistan’s national security and spy on Pakistani citizens.
Fine time to leave
There is evidence for Chinese infiltration of more than just networks and British politicians are not immune. It was revealed in February that Guto Harri, the UK prime minister’s new communications director, had lobbied a former chief of staff at Downing Street not to ban the Chinese company. The government said operators could be fined £100,000 a day if the miss the deadline but has already caved in once, moving the deadline for operators to reduce their share of Huawei equipment to 35% of the full fibre and 5G access networks to 31st July 2023, a full six months later than intended.