UK network carrier begs more time to remove Huawei

One of the top UK broadband and mobile network carrier – BT asked the UK government for some more time for removing Huawei-built equipment from its network, as the COVID-19 scenarios delayed the entire process.

Going to the flashbacks, In 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson banned the Huawei components in UK network architecture. He cut off the 5G wireless connections from the company and began pursuing its presence in the fixed networks.

Consequently, Johnson was having a negative mindset toward Huawei. Calling it a “high-risk vendor”, the BT telecom network limited the role of the Chinese company and started taking support from the security officials.

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Another reason, that forged the UK network carrier to take such a decision against Huawei was the price of storing personal data. To store personal information, Huawei equipment used to cost $122,000 per day. Hence, BT started working on disconnecting Huawei’s core from its network.

However, a sudden call of COVID scenario kept the process aside. As a result of which, BT has requested the UK government for a short extension to meet the desired goal.

Speaking from the government side, the UK lawsuits increased the duration for the removal of non-core parts to July 2023. Yet, the deadline for personal data storage equipment still resides on January 2023.

BT Thoughts over the deadline

“We are continuing to work towards the January 2023 deadline for that work to happen in our core, but have requested a necessary, short extension, to reflect significant Covid-driven impacts to the program over the past two years.”

Apart from this, the company is shifting its core department to Sweden’s Ericsson AB. Alternatively, it has also begun the migration of its customers. On the other hand, BT shook its hands with DCMS and National Cyber Security Centre to complete the task quickly and securely.

(Via – Bloomberg)