Huawei said Tuesday the UK’s decision to ban the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker from its 5G networks was “disappointing” and urged the country to “reconsider.”
Why it matters: The British government said that banning Huawei gear was due to “uncertainty” around the company supply chain. The company argued that it was a “politicized” decision.
Details: Huawei urged the British government to reconsider the ban announced Monday on the company’s equipment from the country’s 5G network rollout, said Huawei in a statement to TechNode on Tuesday.
- “It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide,” the company said.
- The UK government also ordered telecom operators to remove existing Huawei equipment from their 5G networks by 2027, citing a US ban on Huawei in May that could bar the company from the global semiconductor supply chain.
- “Given the uncertainty this creates around Huawei’s supply chain, the UK can no longer be confident it will be able to guarantee the security of future Huawei 5G equipment,” Digital and Culture Minister Oliver Dowden said on Tuesday.
- Huawei, however, said the UK’s decision was “about US trade policy and not security.”
- “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 company said.
Context: A new US regulation announced by the Department of Commerce in May requires companies around the world to obtain licenses for sales to Huawei of semiconductors made with US technology, potentially cutting the company off from global chip manufacturing.
- The company sources critical chips for its smartphones, 5G base stations, and other devices from global semiconductor makers such as Taiwan’s TSMC and Win Semiconductors, and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.