INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Vodafone says the risk of using Huawei equipment in telecoms infrastructure is so low that a ban on its use would be entirely
disproportionate and would delay the rollout of 5G in the UK significantly.Several countries have expressed concerns about the security of
Huawei kit, most notably the US where the company is effectively frozen out of the market, while the UK government is currently conducting a
review.One of the acquisitions levied against Huawei is that it installs backdoors for foreign states to conduct espionage or to shut down
critical infrastructure.Multi-vendor approachHuawei has repeatedly denied the accusations, while there is little appetite for a ban among
mobile operators who fear costs would rise and innovation would decrease
All four major UK operators are Huawei customers, including Vodafone.Speaking to journalists in London, Vodafone UK CTO Scott Petty said the
company works closely with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to assess the potential risk of Huawei gear to its network and found
the threat to its radio and transport networks to be low to medium
There are too many base stations and too many people who move around
and high risk part of the network because of the data that is stored there
With 5G, the risk becomes greater because edge computing distributes various functions around the network, opening up more attack
reports suggesting that there will be no outright ban on the use of Huawei gear
Instead, it is likely that operators will be limited to using Huawei equipment for half of their infrastructure.This would suit Vodafone,
If a ban was applied retrospectively, then the rollout of 5G could be delayed
stations, the cost would be hundreds of millions of pounds and it would delay 5G considerably as we would have to refresh our 4G
Shutterstock)Standardised testingVodafone believes the UK approach to managing risk is the way to go and wants monitoring and testing to be
