BT, Vodafone Need 5 Years to Drop Huawei Without ‘Blackouts’
- Could cost Vodafone lower end of “single-figure billions”
- BT has trialled swapping Huawei antenna to Nokia, Ericsson
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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BT Group Plc and Vodafone Group Plc told U.K. lawmakers they would need at least five years to swap out China’s Huawei Technologies Co. if the government decides on strict rules that would ban the company’s products from being used in 5G networks.
It would cost Vodafone on the lower end of “single-figure billions” to swap out its thousands of Huawei stations and antennas across the country, according to Andrea Dona, Vodafone’s head of U.K. networks, speaking to the U.K. Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee on Thursday.