5G expansion without China group Britain excludes Huawei

The Chinese company Huawei has been around for more than 30 years - the UK is based in Reading.

But no business for Huawei in the UK: The Chinese technology group has to withdraw from the expansion of the fast 5G mobile network in the island nation. The decision has to do not only with security concerns, but also with the attitude of the USA.

Great Britain excludes network provider Huawei from 5G expansion. The responsible British digital minister Oliver Dowden announced this in Parliament in London. The British want to implement the fast network technology without the Chinese technology group from the end of the year - a decision that will be expensive for the mobile phone providers in the country because parts already installed are to be removed by 2027.

At the beginning of the year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government had at least partially allowed Huawei's participation. It is expected that the expansion of the 5G network in Great Britain will now be set back by years due to the U-turn.

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According to the government, the reason for the move is not only security concerns but also the consequences of the recently imposed US sanctions against Huawei. Washington has been trying to put pressure on its partners for months to exclude Huawei from expanding its 5G networks. Recently, the US government urged Brazil not to cooperate with the Chinese company. In return, the United States promises to help the South American country fund the 5G network expansion.

Trump also holds the trump card with the British: Britain is hoping for a lucrative trade agreement with the United States after leaving the European Union. A dispute over Huawei would have made the negotiations in Great Britain considerably, and under certain circumstances even more difficult.

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But the British also hoped to increase trade with China after the Brexit. Relations with Beijing are currently very tense and currently not very promising. The background is the dispute over the security law introduced by China in the former British crown colony in Hong Kong.

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The British government's change of course will not have triggered any joy with the country's mobile communications providers either: Since the fourth generation of mobile communications 4G (LTE) and 5G are based on one another technically, existing LTE technology from Huawei could have been upgraded to 5G comparatively easily. However, if you exclude Huawei as a provider in the 5G network, the Chinese 4G systems must also be removed as part of the 5G upgrade, although they are actually still fully functional. This will entail additional costs.

Therefore, the providers in Germany are also opposed to ban Huawei from the competition. However, neither Telekom nor Vodafone and Telefónica have yet used Huawei parts in their core networks.

Source: ntv.de, joh / dpa

SUBJECTS

Great Britain

China

Huawei

United States

Sanctions

digitalization

5G

Trade relations