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Huawei signs deal to upgrade Portugal’s No 1 phone network to 5G

Dezembro 06, 2018 06:55·
BT will strip Huawei kit from its core 4G network

BT will strip Huawei kit from its core 4G network

Huawei - one of the world's largest mobile equipment and service providers - has always been under scrutiny over its allegedly close ties to China's state intelligence services.

Altice had been working with Huawei since 2016, with a network training programme for the development of a 5G ecosystem in Portugal.

5G networks are coming, but Huawei is getting shut out several markets.

New Zealand and Australia have stopped telecom operators using Huawei's equipment in new 5G networks because they are concerned about possible Chinese government involvement in their communications infrastructure.

We reported last month that Washington was pressuring allied countries to drop Huawei over suspicions of its ties to the Chinese government, and it seems to have worked.

BT will remove Huawei hardware from its core 4G network within the next two years amid concerns over China's influence on national telecoms infrastructure.

Huawei began working with EE - the largest mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, in 2012, according to the Chinese company, which added that it has provided EE with a series of 3G and 4G network solutions, including core network equipment, as part of the collaboration.

As part of an "extraordinary outreach campaign", U.S. officials have reportedly reached out to their government counterparts and telecom executives in European and Asian countries where Huawei equipment is already in use, warning them about the "national security risks" posed by the Chinese firm.

Such concerns are front of mind for many just two days after Alex Younger, head of the UK's foreign intelligence agency, MI6, told a crowd of students at St Andrews: "We need to decide the extent to which we are going to be comfortable with Chinese ownership of these technologies and these platforms in an environment where some of our allies have taken quite a definite position".

"Our 5G research has been hugely promising, and this partnership with Huawei will turn that research into reality", BT CTIO Howard Watson said at the time.

"Since it acquired EE in 2016, the BT Group has been actively bringing EE's legacy network architecture in line with this long-standing agreement". It is a "normal and expected activity, which we understand and fully support", Huawei said.

Later, New Zealand rejected Huawei's first 5G bid citing national security risk.

"We have never had a cyber security-related incident".

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