IT MAY TAKE SEVEN YEARS TO DISENTANGLE FROM HUAWEI

BT GROUP and Vodafone Group told UK lawmakers they would need at least five years to swop out China’s Huawei Technologies if the government decides on strict rules that would ban the company’s products from being used in 5G networks. It would cost Vodafone on the lower end of “single-figure billions” to swop out its thousands of Huawei stations and antennas across the country, according to Andrea Dona, Vodafone’s head of UK networks, speaking to the UK Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee yesterday. Dona added it would take a minimum of 5 years to swop Huawei out without disruption. Howard Watson, BT’s chief technology and information officer, agreed and said it would take “ideally seven” because of the practical limitations on closing streets and dispatching engineers to sites. “It is logistically impossible, I believe, to get to zero in a three-year period,” said Watson, referring to the time-frame targeted by some Conservative party lawmakers. “That would literally mean blackouts for customers on 4G and 2G as well as 5G throughout the country.” It could cost BT “tens to a hundred million” beyond the £500 million (R10.3 trillion) the company already earmarked for complying with rules imposed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in January, which limit Huawei’s presence to 35 percent of 5G and fibre networks outside sensitive core components, where they will be banned by 2023. BT has trialled swopping Huawei antenna sites to Nokia and Ericsson, Watson said. He was pressed by members of Parliament on the company’s use of Huawei in its 4G core. | Bloomberg