Gov Hands Huawei Legal Notices to UK Mobile and Broadband ISPs

The Government has today placed their previous decision to BAN Huawei’s equipment from ultrafast 5G mobile networks (including restrictions on its use in full fibre broadband infrastructure) on more of a legal footing, which it has done by issuing legal notices to 35 telecoms network operators.

Back in 2020 the government announced that it would ban “high risk vendors” from future 5G rollouts (here and here), which followed various US sanctions and security concerns around the role of Chinese firm Huawei in UK networks (ZTE is also banned). The ban has already started to come into force, and the removal of all existing 5G kit must follow by the end of 2027.

As part of that process, the Government has today issued a new document – called a Designated Vendor Direction (DVD) – to 35 UK telecoms network operators. It puts the government’s previous position to remove Huawei kit from UK 5G networks on a legal footing, and they’ve previously warned that operators which fail to meet the current deadlines could face fines of up to 10% of turnover or £100,000 per day.

Huawei itself has also been issued with a separate document – a Designation Notice (DN) – which we’re told formally “categorises the company as a high-risk vendor of 5G network equipment and services“. The designation notice sets out all of the reasons for which the government considers Huawei to pose a national security risk, including the impact of the sanctions.

The direction sets out the final controls to be placed on operators’ use of Huawei, which we’ve summarised below.

Huawei Controls for UK Mobile and Fibre Networks

➤ An immediate ban on the installation of new Huawei equipment in 5G networks;

➤ A requirement to remove Huawei equipment from 5G networks by the end of 2027;

➤ A requirement to remove Huawei equipment from the network core by 31 December 2023;

➤ A requirement to limit Huawei to 35 per cent of the full fibre [FTTP] access network by 31 October 2023;

➤ A requirement to remove Huawei equipment from sites significant to national security by 28 January 2023; and

➤ A requirement not to install any Huawei equipment that has been affected by US sanctions in full fibre networks.

The key deadline to remove all Huawei equipment from the UK’s 5G network by 2027 remains unchanged, as do eight of the other interim deadlines to guide operators in meeting the 2027 deadline. BT had previously also argued that the 28th January 2023 date to remove all Huawei equipment from the core of their telecoms network may be difficult to achieve (here).

The government note that for a small number of operators, the two interim deadlines for the core and 35% of the full fibre access network “could have led to network outages and disruption for customers, due to delays caused by the pandemic and global supply chain issues.” As a result, they’ve now formally set interim deadlines that “balance the need to remove Huawei as swiftly as possible while avoiding unnecessary instability in networks.”

Digital Secretary, Michelle Donelan, said:

“We must have confidence in the security of our phone and internet networks which underpin so much about our economy and everyday lives.

Thanks to this government’s tough new laws we can drive up the security of telecoms infrastructure and control the use of high-risk equipment.

Today I’m using these powers and making it a legal requirement for Huawei to be removed from 5G networks by 2027.”

As part of today’s announcement, the Government has also published its response (here) to their targeted consultation on a proposed ban, which was held earlier this year with Huawei and other telecoms companies under the provisions of the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021.

Mobile operators have previously warned that the decision to remove Huawei, which also impacts existing 4G kit due to the close interdependency of such networks, could delay the completion of the 5G rollout by 2-3 years and add costs of up to £2bn across all operators (except for O2 / VMO2 as they opted to go with Ericsson for 5G). BT alone previously said they would take a £500m hit from all this.