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| Huawei has been given a limited role in the roll-out of Britain's 5G network (AFP Photo/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS) |
London (AFP) - Britain on Tuesday gave the green light to a limited role for Chinese telecoms giant Huawei in the country's 5G network, in a decision that left the United States "disappointed" after it called for a total ban.
Even though
London decided that "high risk vendors" would be excluded from
Britain's "sensitive" core infrastructure, a US official insisted
there was "no safe option for untrusted vendors to control any part of a
5G network", which offers almost instantaneous data transfer.
Washington
has banned Huawei from the roll-out of the fifth generation mobile network
because of concerns that the firm could be under the control of Beijing, an
allegation it strongly denies.
The announcement
came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to meet British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson this week for talks in London likely to focus on Huawei and as
Britain looks for a trade deal with Washington after Brexit.
The United States
had threatened to limit intelligence-sharing with London in the event of Huawei
winning a UK role.
But Foreign
Secretary Dominic Raab told parliament: "Nothing in this review affects
this country's ability to share highly sensitive intelligence data over highly
secured networks.
"GCHQ
(Britain's cybersecurity agency) have categorically confirmed that how we
construct our 5G and full-fibre public telecoms network has nothing to do with
how we share classified data."
Johnson
spoke to US President Donald Trump and "underlined the importance of
like-minded countries working together to diversify the market and break the
dominance of a small number of companies", the British government said.
Balancing
act
London's
decision -- following a meeting of the National Security Council chaired by
Johnson -- came shortly after Brussels said it would also allow Huawei a
limited 5G role in the European Union.
Brussels
and London are both grappling to find a middle way to balance Huawei's huge
dominance in the 5G sector with security concerns, as they look to improve
connectivity.
Britain's
Digital Secretary Nicky Morgan insisted: "High risk vendors never have been
and never will be in our most sensitive networks."
But that
failed to convince Washington, where a senior administration official said the
United States was "disappointed by the UK's decision".
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The fifth
generation or 5G mobile networks will offer super-fast data transfer for
technologies such as self-driving cars and remotely operated factory robots
(AFP Photo/Justin TALLIS)
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Meanwhile,
research group GlobalData said a limited role for Huawei allowed "the UK
to bow in part" to the US.
"A
total ban would have required massive amounts of infrastructure to be torn out
at eye-watering expense, and would have set the UK's 5G roll-out back by years.
"It
was simply never a practical option to ban Huawei completely," it added in
a note.
Unlike the
United States, Britain has been using Huawei technology in its systems for the
past 15 years.
Intelligence sharing
Analysts
Fitch warned that the US could look to retaliate.
"The
US has been putting a lot of pressure on its allies to ban Huawei, and failure
to do so will raise questions about its strategy, as we expect it will look to
retaliate, with threats to stop intelligence-sharing already made," Fitch
said Tuesday.
London's
move excludes Huawei from sensitive UK locations, such as nuclear sites and
military bases, while their market share will be capped.
Huawei
itself welcomed the news that it would have at least a part in building
Britain's 5G networks.
"Huawei
is reassured by the UK government's confirmation that we can continue working
with our customers to keep the 5G roll-out on track," said Huawei
Vice-President Victor Zhang.
Brussels
also ruled out banning the company. A top EU official said instead it was
"a question of laying down rules".
"They
will be strict, they will be demanding and of course we will welcome in Europe
all operators who are willing to apply them," the official said.
Huawei is
widely viewed as providing the most advanced alternative for super-fast data
transfers behind technologies such as self-driving cars and remotely operated
factory robots.
Existing
providers of limited 5G network infrastructure in Britain include Nokia and
Ericsson.
A number of
UK mobile phone operators, including EE and Vodafone, currently sell 5G
services -- but it is so far available only in a handful of cities, notably
London and Birmingham.
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