UK “Levels Itself Down,” Says Huawei after Being Banned from the Kingdom

Huawei says the UK is “levelling (itself) down” after the government’s decision to ban Huawei from its 5G networks, in which the move would burden the kingdom’s people.

 

In the statement regarding the UK government decision on Huawei, Ed Brewster, a spokesperson for Huawei UK, said: “This disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone. It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide. Instead of ‘levelling up’ the government is levelling down and we urge them to reconsider. We remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of the products we supply to the UK.”

“Regrettably our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy and not security,” added Brewster in the statement.

The statement came after the UK parliament decided to ban Huawei from its 5G networks, which would force mobile network operators in the UK to stop buying equipment from Huawei by the end of this year, and to remove every single Huawei’s gear from their infrastructure by 2027.

 

However, the decision to ban Huawei also has a drawback to the country. U.K. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that the move will delay the U.K.’s rollout of 5G mobile internet up to three years and cost as much as £2 billion ($2.5 billion).