UK goes back to square one on Huawei as Johnson promises to re-examine 5G access

US national security advisor John Bolton claims that the British government is re-thinking its policy on Huawei

The UK's policy on Huawei in 5G networks is to be re-considered following talks between US national security advisor John Bolton and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

That's according to Bolton himself, who claims that British officials have pledged to re-examine the user of Huawei in UK 5G networks from "square one".

Bolton has been in the UK for talks this week over the US policy on Iran, the emerging situation in Hong Kong, Brexit, as well as to pressure allies in Europe over Huawei.

The US has threatened to cut allies out of intelligence-sharing arrangements if they allow Huawei hardware to be used in 5G networks. The US claims that the Chinese communications hardware vendor cannot be trusted due to its close ties to the Chinese state.

Huawei claims that it is owned by its trade unions, but in China trade unions are ultimately controlled by the state.

"They [UK officials] said, in particular, they are looking really from square one on the Huawei issue. They were very concerned about not having any compromise in security of telecommunications in the 5G space," Bolton told reporters, according to the Financial Times.

He continued: "What they said was ‘we would like to review this and be very sure about our decision and we too are concerned about the security of our 5G telecommunications network'."

While Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three UK have started building out their 5G network, the British government has dithered over whether Huawei should be allowed to bid for contracts. And, if so, their level of involvement.

Mobile operators, though, have played it safe, using Nokia and Ericsson in their core networks and relegating Huawei to less contentious areas, such as radio access network (RAN) technology.

Three UK, for example, is sticking with Nokia as its main core network vendor - staying with the company it launched with more than 15 years ago. The core network is the most sensitive aspect of 5G, controlling the routing of traffic. However, Three has shifted from Samsung to Huawei for RAN hardware.

Three claims that the UK National Cyber Security Centre has been fully involved in its 5G network procurement decision-making, indicating that the government led by Theresa May did not plan to ban Huawei from supplying RAN equipment to UK mobile operators. However, the change in political leadership in the UK could see a harder line being adopted.

Last month, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee concluded that there was no technical reason for an outright 5G ban for Huawei.

In a letter to the now-sacked minster for digital, Jeremy Wright MP, the Committee chairman wrote: "We have found no evidence from our work to suggest that the complete exclusion of Huawei from the UK's telecommunications networks would, from a technical point of view, constitute a proportionate response to the potential security threat posed by foreign suppliers."

The government's "evidence-based and hard-headed review" of the 5G supply chain is ongoing, but the UK's decision over could become a card in the government's negotiations with the US over a post-Brexit free-trade deal.