Vodafone urges UK.gov to get on with it and conclude review into Huawei

Vodafone's CTO has urged the British government to release the results of its delayed telecoms supply chain review, so that it can get the green light for use of Chinese supplier Huawei in its non-core 5G network. The mobile operator will launch its first 5G services next month, initially focusing on seven cities and spreading …

[Dan 55]

"We have to strike a difficult balance between security and prosperity"

This means "We have to do the minimum to make it look like we got something done".

[DropBear]

"We are not telling you what to do. We are not telling you when we will tell you what to do. But if you don't do it when we do tell you what to do, we shall smite you mightily!" Basically all the exquisitely balanced fair & bilateral power equilibrium of a hostage and its captor.

[Chris G]

I can't help wondering if Trump or whoever is pulling his strings are or were aware of the knock on effects these sanctions can have on friendly countries and some of the businesses in them.

I also wonder if, having weakened these apparent allies if there are US corporations waiting in the wings with solutions (at a very reasonable and legally binding for life) cost.

[Roland6]

Well there is that "phenomenal" trade deal where Trump indicated trade could double or triple but gave no indication whether he was speaking of US exports to the UK or UK imports to the US - I suspect given his "America first" stance, he was referring to US exports...

[DrBed]

Basically, Trump administration is "punishing" China, Iran etc by hurting its own allies: Canada, Mexico... UK, Australia... Japan (>oil from Iran).

I wanted to include EU to the list, but it is already on US "enemy" list. :D

If "miracle deal" wil not happen at G20 (next weeks), UK will be hurt the most, IMHO. Not just because of Vodaphone 5G. Trump colud be gone at 2020, but China will not trust UK anymore (and UK will not be part of EU market, probably).

Pretty much desperate future.

[Claverhouse]

"So if you want to deploy a 5G base station, you have to deploy it on top of an existing 4G base station and you can’t mix vendors. If your base station is a Huawei 4G base station, and you want to deploy 5G - it has to be Huawei, you can’t deploy Ericsson. That interoperability doesn’t work."

I did not know that. Historically, via mutually agreed standardisation, from Roman times, though Victorian engineering [ We can't use Bungle's Spades, all the one's we have are Chumley's Spades ] to today, hardware has been agnostic, so one can mix 'n match.

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The government said the review - which was supposed to arrive by spring 2019 - "will be announced in due course." It said: "We have been clear throughout the process that all network operators will need to comply with the government's decision."

Pompous little gits.

[Bob Nugget]

It's component sharing for money saving via vendor lock-in.

The modern base stations are all pretty much vendor-specific server cabinets. They have shared base hardware and then specific radio units for the different techs (2G/3G/4G/5G). If you have a (recent!) 2G, 3G or 4G base station you can add a 5G module to it and it becomes 5G enabled, so you save on cost (no new base station needed, and it shares the infrastructure with the existing one). That base station may already be serving a combination of 2G, 3G and 4G.

The mobile carriers can have a combination of different equipment on their network, just not in the same device. You can deploy an Ericsson or Nokia base station alongside a Huawei one, but it'll cost more.

[markrand]

all open and above board

I don't suppose HMG is suffering from a little bit of pressure over the 'facts' from foreign parties?

[Anonymous Coward]

Most expensive network (from customers point of view)...

... wishes to deploy cheapest kits.

That's Vodafone...

[Simon Rockman]

I understand that EE is 70% Huawei, 30% Nokia.

[Cynical user]

Quite possibly - Huawei RAN in urban areas, Nokia RAN in rural areas.

[Nick Kew]

Translation

Industry to Government: Please stop dumping your toxic waste on us, and just let us get on with our business.

When that business is building the communications infrastructure that is a crucial foundation for the nation's competitiveness, you'd've thought government would oblige. After all, it bends over backwards for others whose business is altogether less beneficial.

Trump: America First.. Meaning that when Europe and Asia are pulling ahead with comms infrastructure, they must be held back.

[Anonymous Coward]

Scott Petty Ain't Vodafone's CTO !!!!

Scott Petty is not Vodafone's CTO, he's Vodafone UK's CTO. Vodafone Group CTO is Johan Wibergh, big & important difference.