The British government said Tuesday that it will allow Huawei to help build the country's 5G networks, despite excluding it from “core" parts of the network.
UK telecom operators will be able to use Huawei equipment in their 5G networks but it will be excluded from "security critical" core areas, according to a statement from the government.
Huawei responded by saying that the British government confirmed that Huawei can continue to cooperate with customers to maintain the progress of 5G deployment, according to Securities Times.
Zhang Jiangang, vice president of Huawei, said that Huawei has provided cutting-edge technology for British telecommunications operators for more than 15 years. The company will continue to work on the basis of this good record to provide support for customers in investing in 5G networks, promote economic growth, and help the UK maintain Global competitiveness.
Huawei will get limited access to non-core parts, with a 35% cap on "high-risk vendor access".
According to a statement:
Our experience has shown that Huawei’s cybersecurity and engineering quality is low and its processes opaque.
For example, the HCSEC Oversight Board raised significant concerns in 2018 about Huawei’s engineering processes. Its 2019 report confirmed that “no material progress” had been made by Huawei in the remediation of technical issues reported in the 2018 report and highlighted “further significant technical issues” that had not previously been identified;
A large number of Huawei entities are currently included on the US Entity List. Although we do not have knowledge as to whether these entities will remain on the US Entity List, this listing may have a potential impact on the future availability and reliability of Huawei’s products.
The statement said the 35% cap properly balances two different security and resilience risks; the first being the risk associated with HRVs (high-risk vendors), the second being the need for a diversity of supply in the market. Specifically:
i. For FTTP and other gigabit and higher capable access networks3 , at most 35% of premises passed by a network should be served by equipment from an HRV;
ii. For 5G access networks, at most 35% of expected network traffic volume on any particular network passes through HRV equipment and at most 35% of base station sites nationally on any particular network should be served by equipment from an HRV;
iii. For any other functions in 5G, FTTP and other gigabit or higher capable fixed access networks, at most 35% of the network elements from a particular equipment class in any particular network should be provided by an HRV.
UK’s major carriers already use Huawei as part of its 4G networks, however, the rollout of 5G has drawn close attention in part due to security concerns, and calls from U.S. President Donald Trump not to allow Huawei to build the network.
The news will not affect UK carriers that significantly, however, as only Three is reportedly using Huawei in its 5G tech, and in a limited capacity.
The announcement follows months of public debate in the United Kingdom over how to respond to concerns raised by the US government about potential national security risks posed by Huawei components.
