A group of UK mobile operators will urge a request to Mark Sedwill, the government’s cabinet secretary to request Whitehall to clarify its position over Huawei, a Chinese tech giant. According to the draft, the operators will converse that there is a requirement of an urgent meeting amid government as well as industry leaders.
This meeting is very much important as they will not be able to invest in infrastructure if ambiguity over Huawei’s access to Britain’s networks continues. As per the reports, the operators are planning to send the letter sometime this week.
They are worried about the government’s inability to decide whether Huawei technology will be permitted to use in new 5G networks. However, Huawei is considered as the world’s leading supplier of next-generation connectivity equipment, though it has faced a backlash from the US. This is because the US government has by now banned the utilization of Huawei technology following the concerns that the company may present a security threat by permitting the Chinese government a way to snoop on critical infrastructure.
On the other hand, the government said in a statement to media that ‘the security, as well as the resilience of UK’s telecoms networks, is of supreme importance. We have a robust procedure to manage risks to national security and are also committed to the utmost possible security standards. Also, the Telecoms Supply Chain Review will be declared, and we have been apparent throughout the process that all networks operators will require to conform to the government’s decision. ‘
Also, the US along with many other countries and agencies have pointed out continuously Huawei’s connections to the Chinese government and also emphasizing China’s National Intelligence Law that supposes that organizations should ‘support, cooperate as well as collaborate in national intelligence work.’ Also, US, Australian and New Zealand have barred local firms from utilizing Huawei to offer the technology for their 5G networks.
Previously this year there were unconfirmed reports regarding the government’s thinking to allow Huawei equipment into the periphery of new mobile networks, but not into the core of systems that could end up managing some crucial services like police forces, hospitals as well as energy network. Also, a BT owned mobile operator supposed that it had delayed the launch of Huawei’s 5G phones ’till the time we get detail information along with self-assurance plus long term security that our clientele are going to be supported.
On the other hand, Vodafone also declared it is suspending orders of Huawei 5G handsets. Perhaps it is considered as the most significant blow to Huawei along with British firm ARM which designs processors used in most mobile devices globally. It had also said that it might suspend the links with Huawei. In March present year the UK’s cyber security centre, which is a segment of the UK government’s intelligence and security organization GCHQ. It has actually released a report that ruthlessly condemned the Chinese company by alleging that ‘significant technical issues in Huawei’s engineering processes, and it also moves toward to software development carry out the considerably mounting risk to UK operators.
The centre also supposed to offer’ only limited assurance that the long term security risks can be managed in Huawei’s equipment currently developed in the UK.’ It also added that it could only offer limited assurance that all risks to UK national security from Huawei’s involvement in the UK’s critical networks can be adequately mitigated long term.’
At the time of the report, the Chinese company said that it took the distress very seriously and that it would also carry out to work with UK operators along with National Security Centre to fulfill their requirements.
