Lord Livingston to lead government's search for Huawei 5G alternatives
The government has confirmed that former BT CEO Lord Ian Livingston will chair a new taskforce that will devise strategies to diversify the UK’s telecoms equipment supply chain.
Lord Livingston, who was at BT when it handed Huawei its
first major European contract back in 2005, will lead a panel that includes
figures in the telecoms industry, cybersecurity and academia.
Openreach CEO Clive Selley, Vodafone UK CTO Scott Petty and
Professor Rahim Tafazolli, head of the Institute for Communications systems (ICS)
at the University of Surrey are also all on board.
The formation of the taskforce has been prompted by a
reversal in government policy in July that will see Huawei banned from
participating in the rollout of 5G networks in Britain on national security
grounds.
Under the new rules, operators will be banned from buying
telecoms equipment from Huawei by the end of the year and will also have to
strip out existing 5G kit made by the company by 2027. This is despite the fact
that no evidence has ever been produced to support claims of wrongdoing, while
the company has persistently denied any such allegations.
Operators have reluctantly accepted the new reality but the
government itself has suggested the U-turn could delay 5G rollout by up to
three years and add £2 billion of additional costs to operators. Ericsson and
Nokia would have a virtual duopoly in the market for radio 5G kit, leading to
concerns about competition, innovation, and supply.
With 5G central to the government’s economic plans –
especially after Coronavirus – it is eager to minimise disruption.
The taskforce will look to resolve these issues and ensure
the resiliency that Minister for Digital Infrastructure Matt Warman believes is
a prerequisite for “world class” telecoms networks.
Specifically, the group will influence government
legislation and frameworks would ensure operators have access to the innovative
equipment they require without being constrained to a small pool of suppliers
or to ‘High Risk Vendors’ like Huawei.
Samsung and NEC have been suggested as potential suppliers
in the past, while the government is also keen to promote smaller, more
innovative companies such as those building equipment based on Open RAN
standards.
“Today, we have put together a telecoms diversification
taskforce featuring members from industry and academia,” he told the Connected
Britain event. “I am delighted that Lord Ian Livingston will come on board as
chair. I truly believe [the taskforce] will deliver lasting change.
“We at DCMS have done some good work on diversification but
we wanted a taskforce to go to genuine experts. It is very important we have a
strategy that’s implemented as quickly as possible. We’ve had a lot of
engagement with Lord Livingston over the summer and chair and the plan has to
be to move from strategy to implementation. But we also want to make sure we
don’t rush down a route that isn’t the right one to be taking.”
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