UK Extends 2 Deadlines for Huawei 5G Kit Removal to Avoid Network Instability

A person stands by a sign of Huawei during World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Sept. 1, 2022. Aly Song/Reuters

The UK government has extended two deadlines for the removal of Huawei equipment from Britain’s 5G networks to avoid disruptions to telecommunications services.

The requirement to remove the Chinese firm’s products from the network core has been pushed back to Dec. 31, 2023, 11 months later than originally stipulated.

Also, British telecom operators must limit the amount of Huawei kit in their fibre-broadband infrastructure to under 35 percent by the end of October 2023, three months after the original deadline.

The decision was reached following advice from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said on Oct. 13.

According to the government, for a small number of operators, the two interim deadlines “could have led to network outages and disruption for customers, due to delays caused by the pandemic and global supply chain issues.”

The new deadlines “balance the need to remove Huawei as swiftly as possible while avoiding unnecessary instability in networks,” the government said.

But the key deadline to remove all Huawei equipment in the UK’s 5G network by 2027 remains unchanged, as do eight of the other interim deadlines to guide operators in meeting the 2027 deadline.

The NCSC has agreed this is a “sensible balance,” the government said.

‘Legal Footing’

The government said it has put its position to remove Huawei kit from UK 5G networks on a “legal footing” by sending “designated vendor directions” to all 35 UK telecoms network operators.

In July 2020, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson banned Huawei from further input into the UK’s telecoms infrastructure by the end of 2020, and set a deadline of 2027 for the stripping out of existing kit from the country’s 5G network.

Johnson initially favoured a limited role for Huawei, but eventually decided to ban Huawei owing to pressure from the United States and his own backbench Conservative members of Parliament.

Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan said: “We must have confidence in the security of our phone and internet networks which underpin so much about our economy and everyday lives.

“Thanks to this government’s tough new laws we can drive up the security of telecoms infrastructure and control the use of high-risk equipment.”

Ian Levy, technical director at the NCSC, said: “Society increasingly relies on telecoms and the NCSC, government and industry partners work closely to help ensure that these networks are secure and resilient in the long term.

“The Telecoms Security Act ensures we can be confident in the resilience of the everyday services on which we rely, and the legal requirements in this Designated Vendor Direction are a key part of the security journey.”