5G, Vodafone: UK leadership at risk if Huawei is abandoned

The Vodafone group warns Britain of potential risks if it decides to abandon Huawei towards the 5G race. The news was reported by Reuters to which Scott Petty, the company's Chief Technology Officer in the UK, said that the country's leadership in the new network standard could be affected if the infrastructure of the Shenzhen giant could no longer be used.

Mobile operators would be forced to spend time and money to replace existing equipment. "We are not tied to a single supplier, but it is important to understand the scope of what is at stake here," said Petty, adding that Vodafone is still working with Ericsson and is testing the equipment of new suppliers.

Photo credit - depositphotos .com The news echoes the recent rumors that the British government is committed to wanting to reduce Huawei's role in building the 5G network in the United Kingdom to zero (by 2023). The reasons for this step backwards for the UK would be the pressures of a growing number of conservatives opposed to Chinese investments, the accusations against Beijing for a lack of transparency on the Coronavirus issue and the desire to intensify relations with the United States. Furthermore, rumors of the past few days have reported hypothetical UK talks with the Japanese NEC Corp and the South Korean Samsung for the development of alternatives to Huawei.

Not only that. Just in the past few hours, Ericcson announced a new partnership with the O2 operator that has chosen the Swedish multinational for a network modernization program and to implement its 5G radio access network (RAN) across the United Kingdom.

If you should proceed towards the farewell to the giant of Shenzhen, therefore, London would be disadvantaged because forced to change the existing equipment. “ The british government should make efforts to expand the coverage of 5G, and invest in the next phase of this technology instead of deleting the equipment of the chinese producer” said Petty. Actually, a change of course now would cause the UK to lose its leadership. We'll see if it is actually the government led by Boris Johnson will really change the idea or not.

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