UK telcos have been banned from buying Huawei 5G switchgear as from December 31st 2020. All Huawei 5G kit in the network must be taken out by 2027.

These measure were announced by the DCMS Secretary of State Oliver Dowden in the Commons earlier today

An hour or so before the announcement the Chairman of Huawei UK, Lord  Browne, the former BP CEO, resigned.

Dowden relied heavily on the decision of the NCSC that  Huawei switchgear is now unsafe following the US decision to ban Huawei from using US chips.

He also said that the UK’s long-term target is to work towards an O-RAN network and the government is talking to Samsung and NEC towards that goal as well as to the existing vendors Nokia and Ericsson.

Dowden said that the decision did not affect Huawei’s 2G 3G and 4G switchgear in the UK network because the US chip ban only applied to 5G equipment.

Iain Duncan-Smith pointed out that  Huawei would be continuing to provide software updates to the 2G, 3G and 4G equipment.