Mobile network upgrades leave Chinese supplier isolated
Vodafone Hutchison Australia chief executive Inaki Berroeta believes the government’s decision to ban Chinese telecommunications equipment providers from Australia’s high-speed 5G rollout means Huawei will be phased out from all local mobile networks.
Vodafone uses equipment from Swedish supplier Ericsson in the core of its 3G and 4G mobile networks where sensitive information processing takes place, and Finland’s Nokia and China’s Huawei for non-core parts.
The Australian government banned Huawei on security grounds in August, making it the first country of global cybersecurity alliance Five Eyes (including the US, Canada, New Zealand and the UK) to impose an official ban. Since then, New Zealand has followed suit and the US has an unofficial block on Chinese suppliers.
In the months after the ban there were concerns Australian providers would need to immediately rip Huawei kit out of 4G, as 5G initially uses equipment bolted onto legacy networks.
‘‘I’m comfortable with keeping [Huawei] on 4G because we have checked with authorities and that is perfectly ok, so I don’t think we’ll have an issue around keeping that,’’ Berroeta said.
‘‘What we know for a fact is that on 5G we will be operating with a different vendor.’’
Even without having to remove Huawei right away, Berroeta believes the technology will be phased out over time.
One of the factors that will determine how long Huawei plays a role in existing networks is how quickly Australians take up the new technology.
In 1993, the second mobile generation 2G was launched in Australia by all three carriers. Telstra turned off 2G in 2016, Singtel Optus in 2017 and Vodafone shut down this network five months ago.
While this took about 15 years, the take-up of each mobile generation has become quicker than the last.
‘‘There will be a year, sooner rather than later, where 80 per cent of our traffic will be 5G. There will be a time when it will be zero [on 4G]. When it’s zero, there is no more Huawei,’’ he said.
Huawei might find itself without a role in providing telco networks in the future, but is likely to grow its presence in Australia with consumer devices such as mobile phones.
Currently, Samsung and Apple have the majority of market share for mobile phones and expect to launch 5G compatible devices around 2020, but Huawei and ZTE intend to have phones with this ability in 2019.
Telstra is widely expected to be first to turn on the 5G network for customer use in Australia and does not currently sell Huawei handsets. The company has said this was not a security decision and it would not rule out selling the Chinese firm’s devices.
– Sydney Morning Herald