The British government said on Monday that its telecoms operators will be banned from installing new 5G equipment made by Huawei after September 2021, a move that came four months after the decision to completely remove the Chinese company’s gear from its 5G network by 2027.
The move marks a U-turn from January when the British government said that it would give Huawei limited access to its 5G network in defiance of U.S. pressure.
Meanwhile, Britain is also adopting a new 5G supply chain diversification strategy in order to introduce new vendors into its market, with plans to conduct trials with Japanese telecoms firm NEC.
NEC is expected to deliver a live 5G open radio access network (RAN) within the U.K. by 2021. RAN provides a new way of building a telecoms network in which components from different suppliers can be used in a single mobile network.
