U.K. telecoms operator BT Group’s Chief Security and Networks Officer Howard Watson said the carrier is expected to complete the removal of Huawei hardware and software from its core network by the end of March, MobileWorldLive reported. BT missed the government-imposed year-end 2023 deadline to fully remove Huawei equipment, according to The Register.
The company says that although 99 percent of all core traffic is now served by non-Huawei equipment, the remaining one percent is still on old 2G and 3G networks. BT, which owns mobile network operator EE, says the overall process involves migrating a total of 30 million active customers. Watson emphasized that the infrastructure still to be removed was “not for traffic,” explaining it was used for managing data bundles with an alternative platform that is still under development.
The U.K. government initially announced its intention to ban Huawei equipment from telcos’ 5G networks in 2020 due to security concerns. The original deadline for removing Huawei’s core equipment was set for January 28, 2023.
That date was later extended to December 31, 2023, following an appeal from BT and other MNOs. The government had previously allowed Huawei to continue providing equipment to local 5G networks with certain restrictions, but in 2020, it decided to completely remove Huawei gear from the country’s 5G networks by the end of 2027.
BT acknowledges that there are challenges and complexities to fully removing Huawei equipment which is embedded in the EE network but says that it is making progress. The company previously indicated that complying with U.K.’s restrictions on Huawei would cost nearly $635 million between 2020 and 2025.
Having missed the deadline extension, BT still could face substantial fines, The Register reported.
Reader Interactions