The meeting lasted 80 minutes. By the time it ended on Tuesday morning, January 28, 2020, Britain’s National Security Council had settled a question that had irritated Washington for months: Huawei could stay in the country’s 5G networks, on a short leash.
The terms, as the Guardian and the BBC set them out, are specific. Huawei is barred from the “sensitive parts” of the network known as the core. It is kept away from nuclear sites and military bases. Everywhere else, in the periphery that includes radio masts, its share of the equipment is capped at 35%. The cap holds for each of the four mobile operators, O2, Three, Vodafone and EE, and also covers the full-fibre broadband rollout. The industry has three years to comply.
Why Britain stopped short of a ban
Officials told the Guardian that a total ban could have set 5G back by two to three years, raised costs for consumers and hurt growth. Without a cap, they said, Huawei’s slice of the new market would have climbed to between 60% and 65% within three years. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, explaining the decision to MPs, pointed to “market failure”: there are few alternatives, chiefly Ericsson of Sweden and Nokia of Finland.
Huawei has supplied British equipment since 2003, and a unit of GCHQ already reviews its work. Raab said Britain knew more about the company and its risks “than any other country in the world”. The government nonetheless labelled it a “high risk vendor”, since Chinese ownership means Beijing could, in theory, compel it to carry out surveillance. The Guardian noted there was no evidence of deliberate security flaws in its kit.
Dissent inside the room was, apparently, mild. Home Secretary Priti Patel was among those with reservations, yet government sources spoke of a “cacophony of unanimity”.
Washington and the backbenches
The Trump administration had been loud beforehand. Mike Pompeo tweeted on the Sunday that Britain faced “a momentous decision ahead on 5G”. Afterwards a senior official told Reuters, anonymously, that there is “no safe option for untrusted vendors to control any part of a 5G network”. Even so, the Guardian reported that a phone call between Boris Johnson and Donald Trump on Tuesday afternoon had softened the US stance. Downing Street said the prime minister stressed the importance of diversifying the supplier market.
Nearer home the reaction was harsher. Penny Mordaunt called the decision “regrettable”. David Davis said Huawei should be banned from British networks outright. Tom Tugendhat, who had chaired the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said the statement “does not close the UK’s networks to a frequently malign international actor”. Senator Tom Cotton of the US Senate Intelligence Committee wrote that London had “freed itself from Brussels only to cede sovereignty to Beijing”.
Huawei’s UK chief Victor Zhang said the company was reassured and could keep the rollout on track. Dimitris Mavrakis of ABI Research called it “a good compromise”, with minimal disruption to existing plans.
The squeeze falls hardest on two operators. More than 35% of the radio equipment at Vodafone and EE already comes from Huawei, which supplies about 60% of their base stations. They now have to cut back.
Sources
- Huawei set for limited role in UK 5G networks – BBC News
- UK Huawei decision appears to avert row with US
- UK allows role for Huawei in 5G network
