London, July 14: The United Kingdom on Tuesday announced its decision to ban British companies from buying Huawei-produced equipment for 5G networks from the end of the year.

"We have been clear-eyed from the start that Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE were deemed to be high-risk...The NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) has now reported to ministers that they have significantly changed their security assessment of Huawei's presence in the UK's 5G network...The UK can no longer be confident it will be able to guarantee the security of future Huawei 5G equipment...," Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, told the UK Parliament.

"The government agrees with the NCSC advice that the best way to secure our networks is for operators to stop using the new affected Huawei equipment to build UK's future 5G networks," he said.

He added, "From the end of this year, telecoms operators must no longer buy any 5G equipment from Huawei. Once the security bill is passed, it will be illegal for them to do so."

Dowden further said that no new kit is to be added from January 2021 and UK 5G networks will be Huawei free by the end of 2027. This comes in the backdrop of US designating Chinese telecom companies Huawei and ZTE Corp as national security threats, saying they have close ties with the Chinese Communist Party and China's military apparatus.

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