LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - Britain's culture minister said
telecoms firms Ericsson and Nokia need to
be protected as alternatives to Huawei after announcing
plans to ban the Chinese firm from Britain's 5G network.
"We are already working with all our Five Eyes partners on
those alternatives," Oliver Dowden told parliament, referring to
cooperation between the group of allies comprising the U.S.,
Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
"The first thing we need to do is ensure that we protect the
other two vendors in this market so Nokia, and Ericsson.
Secondly we need to get new suppliers in, that starts with
Samsung, and it starts with NEC," he said.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle and William James; writing by Costas
Pitas; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)