by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – HUAWEI has urged the United Kingdom (UK) to reassess its ban of the company in the rollout of fifth-generation (5G) network.
The Chinese-headquartered firm expressed disappointment at the decision announced on Tuesday.
“This disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone,” Edward Brewster, spokesperson of Huawei UK, said.
“It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide. Instead of ‘levelling up’ the government is levelling down and we urge them to reconsider.”
Brewster said Huawei remained confident that the new United States restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of Huawei products it supplies to the UK.
UK is an ally of the US.
“Regrettably our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy and not security,” Brewster said.
The official said over the past 20 years, Huawei had focused on building a better connected UK and would still continue to support its customers as the company had always done.
“Following the ban, Huawei would conduct a detailed review of what the announcement entailed for its business and “will work with the UK government to explain how we can continue to contribute to a better connected Britain,” Brewster said.
Operators have been given until 2027 to rip out existing Huawei kit, a process expected to delay rollout of the new network technology by between two and three years and cost up to £2 billion, according to analysts.
The decision by the UK reverses a policy unveiled in January, which cleared operators to use Huawei in up to 35 percent of their 5G radio access networks (RANs), but not core networks.
– CAJ News