Britain has bowed to growing US pressure and ordered the phased removal of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from its 5G network despite warnings of retaliation from Beijing.
The politically-fraught change in Britain's digital future was made by Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a meeting with his cabinet and National Security Council.
The UK was then completing its tortuous departure from the European Union and looking to establish strong ties with powerful Asian economies that could fulfil Mr Johnson's vision of a"Global Britain". UK officials caution that all existing players have some Huawei equipment in their supply chains that needs to be taken into account.Huawei has always denied this and pointed to two decades of cooperation with British security agencies that checked on the safety of its existing 3G and 4G networks.
"This means a cumulative delay to 5G roll-out of two to three years and costs of up to £2 billion ," he said.But officials insisted that Huawei had managed to install only a"small amount" of equipment since the 5G system began being offered to UK consumers last year.Mr Johnson has challenged the Trump administration to come up with a reliable and cost-effective alternative to the Chinese firm.
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