British public would end up paying for Huawei ban

LONDON: British consumers could end up paying for the government’s Huawei Technologies red card. If Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposes a total ban on the Chinese company’s equipment from superfast 5G networks, mobile operators BT and Vodafone may have to spend over a billion pounds ripping out and replacing existing Huawei kit. The bill for the sudden change will land with taxpayers.

Two things have changed since January, when Johnson said Huawei could have up to a 35% share of the less-sensitive parts of Britain’s next-generation mobile networks. Chinese relations with the United Kingdom have nosedived over Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong. And U.S. sanctions targeting Huawei’s access to cutting-edge microchips have placed a question mark over the company’s long-term future.