U.K.’s 5G network to bar Huawei

Britain will bar new deployments of Huawei equipment in its fledgling highspeed 5G network, according to officials familiar with the matter, in what is a major blow to the Chinese technology giant and a significant win for the Trump administration, which has been pressing allies to shun the firm.

The British decision, expected to be announced today, is part of a growing shift away from China in the global 5G competition, especially among advanced democracies increasingly concerned that the firm’s ties to the Communist government create an unacceptable security risk. The Chinese crackdown in Hong Kong and Beijing’s lack of transparency on the origins of the coronavirus have added to concerns in Western capitals about using Chinese technology, officials and analysts said.

Britain will also announce it will phase out over several years the small amount of Huawei 5G equipment installed in recent months, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue in advance of a formal announcement by the British government. The decision to bar Huawei was reported by Reuters on Monday. Huawei did not respond to requests for comment.

The United States has effectively banned Huawei and other Chinese companies from its nascent 5G platforms — wireless telecommunications networks seen as the key to revolutionary advances in the way we live, work and play. For much of the past two years, the Trump administration has sought, often seemingly in vain, to persuade allies to follow suit. In May, the Trump administration imposed an export control that cut Huawei off from a key source of semiconductors made with U.S. technology, leading British officials to doubt they could count on the security of Huawei’s equipment.

Now, with Britain joining the anti-Huawei fold, all “Five Eye” members of the world’s most powerful intelligencesharing alliance — Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — or wireless carriers in their countries, have effectively excluded or are moving to exclude Chinese firms from their 5G networks.

Huawei’s reversal of fortune in Britain will have major implications for other countries that have not made final decisions on their 5G approach, especially Germany, Europe’s largest telecom market.

“The writing’s on the wall in Europe,” said Paul Triolo, who heads the Eurasia Group’s global technology policy practice. “There’s no way that Huawei will remain a big supplier there.”