Robert Peston Robert Peston

Why Huawei may be allowed in the UK 5G network

Brandon Lewis, the security minister, is something of a genius at winsomely saying next to nothing. Even so I emerged from my interview with him on my show last night persuaded that the National Security Council and the Prime Minister would next week give the go ahead to the controversial use of Huawei kit in the roll-out of superfast 5G mobile broadband.

It was something about the way he said that he utterly respected the advice of the security services and would take very seriously the evidence provided by BT and Vodafone.

Here is why this matters.

The security services, I understand, have concluded that GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre have the relevant expertise and the capacity to make sure that Chinese agents provocateurs do not in any way undermine the security of the UK, if it were to turn out that use of the Chinese kit somehow gives them a backdoor either to eavesdrop or somehow to control a vital part of UK communications infrastructure.

So – and I have this from multiple sources – our own spooks believe they can manage and contain the risks.

Equally there are powerful business and economic arguments being put to ministers by BT and Vodafone, who already use Huawei kit in the existing 4G network and (in the case of BT) in the existing fixed broadband network.

They use Huawei and want to buy more because – they say – it is better quality and more advanced than the alternatives made by Europe’s Nokia and Ericsson.

Their principle argument is that if they are instructed by the government to eschew Huawei, because of the risks, then the roll-out of 5G would be set back by two years, that of full-fibre broadband by around four years, and the write-offs for UK telecoms companies would run to billions.

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Robert Peston
Written by
Robert Peston
Robert Peston is Political Editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show Peston. His articles originally appeared on his ITV News blog.

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