Huawei’s ban in the UK: looking beyond delays and costs

On 14 July, the UK government announced that mobile operators would be banned from buying new 5G network equipment from Huawei after 31 December 2020 and would need to remove all Huawei 5G kit from their networks by 2027. The announcement followed an earlier directive limiting Huawei to 35% of the RAN in an operator’s network, with no role in the core.

Announcing the ban, the UK government attempted to quantify the impact – delays of up to three years to the rollout of 5G in the UK and a cost of up to £2 billion. But these factors are only a piece of the puzzle: other considerations include services beyond 5G, vendor dynamics beyond the obvious, and networks outside of the UK.