£100,000 a day fine for flouting ban on Huawei

INTERNET companies will face a £100,000-a-day fine if they do not abide by the Huawei ban, the Government has revealed as it unveiled new laws aimed at keeping spies out of Britain’s 5G network.

The Telecoms Security Bill will bring in new sanctions and restrictions on companies that use parts and kit from “high risk” suppliers in their networks.

The Bill, which is being laid before Parliament today, comes after the Government banned the Chinese company Huawei from the UK’S 5G network over concerns about its closeness to Beijing.

After the decision in July, which will result in all Huawei kit being removed from the UK network by 2027, the telecoms industry warned it would delay the roll-out of t he nex t generation of mobile signal by years.

5G signal will not j ust make smartphones faster but will also underpin the technology f or f uture smart homes and cities, such as driverless cars.

Meanwhile, ministers said yesterday that Britain had also fended off recent cyber attacks attributed to Russia, Iran and North Korea aimed at the UK’S internet infrastructure.

The new Bill will give the Government powers to designate foreign companies “high risk” and limit their usage in the network.

UK internet companies will also have to meet new statutory standards for cyber s ecurity, which will be enforced by Ofcom.

The media regulator is being given new powers to i nspect company’s networks, interview staff and conduct spot checks at sites.

Failure to meet the new standards will result in a fine of up to 10 per cent of the companies’ t urnover or £100,000 a day for continued contraventions.

Speaking after the publication of the Bill, Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said: “We are investing billions to roll out 5G and gigabit broadband across the country, but the benefits can only be realised if we have full confidence in the security and resilience of our networks.

“This groundbreaking bill will give the UK one of the toughest telecoms security regimes in the world and allow us to take the action necessary to protect our networks.”