back to article Just let us have Huawei and get on with 5G, UK mobe networks tell MPs

British telcos and academics have told a Parliamentary enquiry the UK needs to get on with allowing Huawei equipment into the heart of its future 5G networks. In submissions to an ongoing consultation entitled Ensuring access to "safe" technology: the UK's 5G infrastructure and national security inquiry, business and academia …

  1. GnuTzu

    Would you as an organization with intellectual property and publicly known IP addresses want to pull development code through a national firewall that certainly monitors Internet activity (including IP addresses) in a country known for stealing IP?

    If not, where are you going to get development code for 5G technology?

    I'm not saying there is much in the way of such development code; this is not the focus of the discussion. But, such things should be thought through.

    This is one perspective that speaks to the scope of the discussion, in an industry and standards boards called for by governments that doesn't always think things through. That is, there's a broader context to be considered. Sometimes people just don't know what they're asking for.

    1. David Shaw

      I think that all big data systems have always had a role for snarfing/scarfing as much IP & juicy contractual details as they can, whilst of course protecting against Hobgoblins. The FVEY ECHELON program has always been accused (often by the French, but Germany had some claims too) that it stole industrial secrets, compromised sealed bidding process for large contracts.

      The political prisoner and former hacker Assange exploited some of this when he ran a TOR exit server, scarfing the plaintext outflow, (as many others were doing) as one of the first sources of the wikileaks project.

      You are right that China presents a scary model of where our society might go, and serious thought should be given about allowing any particular nation as much access and control over big data, as our nations would like to have, or currently do have.

      " A country known for stealing IP " is a very broad brush at present!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trump has triumphed

    It all started with him and his phoney trade wars. Are you saying Trump knows his own IP address or MAC address, where he tweets from? Does he know what DNS is? Is he using 5G or 5Ghz wifi?

    He has succeeded in stalling hte rollout in UK and waiting for CISCO to come up with the goods . Pure and simples.

    Who is lobbying UK govt on his behalf? Please convince me our politicians are not bent.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Why would you / should you "wait for Cisco"?

      They aren't a market leader in cellular or 5G. Last I checked, there were some EU companies who were. Now maybe because of Brexit you don't want to buy from them either, but that's your own fault for voting yourselves out of the EU.

  3. 9Rune5

    Ownership

    all three of the UK's main suppliers are international companies, in their ownership

    But isn't the crux of the argument here that the choice stands between selecting a supplier that falls under the jurisdiction of an ally, vs one that is controlled by a rather (according to MSM) oppressive regime?

    All foreigners aren't equally 'foreign'.

    Or are all three international companies in reality already under Chinese control?

    1. JetSetJim

      Re: Ownership

      > Or are all three international companies in reality already under Chinese control?

      At the end of the day, where are the chips made...?

      From my memory of reading this site, there have been more Cisco backdoors found than Huawei ones (although some have impacted both companies...).

      In terms of backdoors into network infrastructure - I've had some exposure to how to get access to Tier-1 network operators servers remotely, and it's not really that easy. It's not a case of Telnetting to a well known IP address and you're in. Sometimes a couple of layers of VPNs between trusted IP addresses are required, with security tokens and user accounts required. Even then, what is allowed in & out is quite locked down.

      Sure, social engineering attacks might get in, but that's not a Huawei-specific problem.

    2. John Mangan

      Re: Ownership

      !All foreigners aren't equally 'foreign'.!

      All allies aren't equally trustworthy.

  4. tobs
    Stop

    Telco-speak translation

    > "Britain should hold its nose on the thorny Huawei security issue and instead concentrate on the large number of varying (but invariably positive) economic growth predictions for countries with mature 5G deployments."

    Translation: Huawei are cheaper which will allow telcos to ream customers even more than currently, while not caring one iota about how that cheapness is achieved.

    > "the "small" size of the British 5G market meant the UK would have limited ability to "counter adversarial dominance in global standard setting bodies and fora". This, it claimed, would see British telcos being left "unable, or unwilling, to refuse deployment in UK markets and infrastructure" of equipment that doesn’t meet British security standards."

    But adding one more multi-national, dominant company to the mix will somehow make all the difference and everything will suddenly be unicorns and rainbows for the telcos...

    1. JetSetJim

      Re: Telco-speak translation

      Huwei business model has always been to give away the hardware cheaply to lock you in, then EOL s/w relatively quickly. If all their modems are SDR, then once you're in, you're probably staying unless Ericsson or Nokia fork out to rip the Huawei kit as part of their bid.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Re: Telco-speak translation

        Huawei's business model has always been a state sponsored, IP theft operation. PERIOD. Full-Stop. R.I.P. Nortel.

        China, if you're listenting, you can go fuck yourselves, on behalf of all Americans! No apologies for you. We are America - the land of FREE "Fucking" SPEACH!!!

        #FreeHongKong #FuckChina #FuckTheNBA #FuckHuawei #PoohBearPing #BDS #FuckTrump

  5. phuzz Silver badge
    Coat

    Just maybe...

    Counter-point:

    By giving foreign intelligence agencies access to the communications of average UK citizens, we'll inundate them with banalities and bore them all to distraction with endless talk of Bake-off, Strictly, and what 'our Kevin said to Sharon at Pauline's wedding'.

    This will obfuscate any actually-secret communications.

    1. JetSetJim

      Re: Just maybe...

      Meh - someone will point out that they've got so many people they can afford to do man-on-man marking.

      And they probably could've cut through all the shit on Colleen Rooney's current media-storm and just straight out said who did it, from where, and on what device (and I did not like finding out why Pringles trended on Twitter that day...)

  6. gnarlymarley

    spying

    If this is a spying issue with huawei, then clearly there is something the cell phone companies are getting in return. They seem to have a desire (more than just a tie to their technology) to go with huawei. They may just be getting a cutback from huawei for the data.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Most BT Home Hubs are Huawei

    Most BT Home Hubs are Huawei, so what's the difference. They must have compromised the whole of UK by now?

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