The decoupling of China’s telecoms giant Huawei from the wireless networks of English-speaking countries continued this week, as the UK’s largest mobile provider decided to ban the use of the Chinese firm’s equipment in its mobile operations.
BT Group said that it will remove Huawei gear from the core of existing 3G and 4G networks and will not use it for coming 5G operations, according to a report from Reuters on Wednesday.
The move comes amid efforts by Washington to convince allies that using Huawei equipment poses a national security risk due to alleged ties to the People’s Liberation Army.
Australia and New Zealand have already announced that they will not use Huawei for 5G operations.
Also this week, Canada’s top intelligence official, David Vigneault, warned in his first public speech about the dangers of state-sponsored espionage through 5G mobile networks, according to The Globe and Mail.
The US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are commonly referred to as the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing allies.
Courageous by whistle-blower Edward Snowden have previously revealed NSA cyber-espionage programs, which have stolen hundreds of millions of Chinese mobile phone text messages; broken into the crucial IT backbone system at China’s Tsinghua University which connects to large numbers of important institutes and research labs; and monitored the communications of important Chinese officials.
Courageous by whistle-blower Edward Snowden have previously revealed NSA cyber-espionage programs, which have stolen hundreds of millions of Chinese mobile phone text messages; broken into the crucial IT backbone system at China’s Tsinghua University which connects to large numbers of important institutes and research labs; and monitored the communications of important Chinese officials.