UK's BT, Vodafone may seek PM Johnson's support for Huawei -sources

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Britain's BT and Vodafone
are considering urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson not
to risk the rollout of next generation mobile networks by
banning China's Huawei, sources said, confirming a Sky
News report on Friday.

Britain is set to take a final decision on Huawei's role in
building new 5G networks this month.

U.S. government officials have pushed for a total ban on
Huawei on security grounds, and reports said they presented new
evidence on Monday about the risks of using the Chinese
company's equipment, branding it "madness".

BT and Vodafone, Britain's two largest telecoms companies,
are considering writing to Johnson to say they have seen no
evidence that would justify a total ban and to urge him to make
a fact-based decision, the sources said.

Vodafone, which uses Huawei's equipment in its radio
network, has previously said a blanket ban on the Chinese
company would costs it millions of pounds and significantly slow
down the roll-out of 5G networks.

It paused the deployment of the company's equipment in its
data-heavy core networks, a year ago until Western governments
give the company a full security clearance.

BT also uses Huawei's equipment in networks, but it is not
deployed in the intelligent core of its fixed-line network and
it is removing it from the core of its mobile network. In
addition, it has excluded Huawei from the bidding process for
its future 5G network.

Huawei vice president Victor Zhang said on Tuesday he was
confident the UK government would make a decision based upon
evidence, "as opposed to unsubstantiated allegations".

"Two UK parliamentary committees concluded there is no
technical reason to ban us from supplying 5G equipment and this
week the head of (security service) MI5 said there is 'no reason
to think' the UK's intelligence-sharing relationship with the
U.S. would be harmed if Britain continued to use Huawei
technology," he said.

BT and Vodafone declined to comment on the letter.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by David Evans)