UK Bans Huawei From 5G Network, Expects Slowdown in Deployment

The U.K. government followed the U.S. lead in banning Huawei equipment Tuesday. “The best way to secure our networks is for operators to stop using new affected Huawei equipment to build the UK’s future 5G networks,” Media Secretary Oliver Dowden told the House of Commons: “From the end of this year, telecoms operators must not buy any 5G equipment from Huawei.” Dowden conceded the ban will delay the U.K.'s 5G rollout by two years and cost up to $2.5 billion. This “threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide,” Huawei said: "We remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of the products we supply to the UK." The announcement is “good news for the safety and security of 5G networks,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr tweeted. Others at the FCC agreed. “There is an overwhelming consensus that Huawei is in a position to exploit network vulnerabilities and compromise critical communications infrastructure for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The U.K. "has taken a necessary step to safeguard its national security as it builds out advanced networks,” he said. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., welcomes "these developments in the UK" and reiterates his hope that the Trump administration "will begin to engage multilaterally with like-minded allies on promoting secure and competitively-priced alternatives to Huawei equipment,” he said Tuesday. “My bipartisan legislation, the United Strategic Allied Telecommunications Act, would be a major step in the right direction and I hope to see it included, fully funded, in the eventual defense authorization act," said Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.