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By Paul Sandle
LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson is
set to ban Huawei from Britain's 5G network on Tuesday in a
momentous decision that will delight Washington, dismay Beijing
and signal the end of a two-decade long partnership with the
country's biggest mobile operator.
The United States has pushed Johnson to reverse his January
decision to grant Huawei a limited role in 5G, saying the
Chinese company is a security risk.
The debate has played out against a backdrop of a crackdown
in Hong Kong and questions about China's handling of
coronavirus, damaging relations between London and Beijing.
Britain's National Security Council (NSC), chaired by
Johnson, will meet on Tuesday morning to discuss Huawei. Media
Secretary Oliver Dowden will then announce a decision to the
House of Commons later in the day.
The immediate excuse for the about turn in policy is the
impact of new U.S. sanctions on chip technology, which London
says affects Huawei's ability to remain a reliable supplier.
Huawei and its customers, who include BT, Vodafone
and Three, are waiting to see how extensive
the new ban will be and how quickly it will be implemented, with
hundreds of millions of pounds riding on the outcome.
BT boss Philip Jansen said on Monday the company needed at
least five years, and ideally seven, to remove Huawei.
"If we get to a situation where things need to go very, very
fast, then you are into a situation where potentially service
for 24 million BT Group mobile customers is put into question -
outages," he said.
If the ban were extended to all mobile and fixed-line
networks, including legacy equipment, more than a decade would
be needed, he said.
Vodafone said removing all Huawei gear would cost it in the
"single figure billions" of pounds.
Huawei, which has always denied U.S. claims that it could
spy for Beijing, has said the implications of the sanctions are
not yet clear, and it has urged Britain to wait.
China has indicated that banning one of its flagship global
technology companies would have far-reaching ramifications.
Its ambassador to Britain has said a U-turn on Huawei would
damage Britain's image and it would have to "bear the
consequences" if it treated China as a hostile country.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle, Editing by William Maclean)
