15/07/2020 (Agence Europe) – On Tuesday 14 July, the British government announced its intention to exclude the Chinese manufacturer Huawei from fifth generation (5G) telecommunications infrastructures, thus going back on its January declarations which limited its stake in non-strategic networks to 35%. The purchase of new Huawei equipment will be prohibited after 31 December 2020 and existing equipment will have to be removed by 2027. In a press release, the Chinese OEM said it was “regrettable that (its) future in the UK has been politicised because of US trade policy and not for security reasons”. Currently, Huawei provides 80% of the world’s commercial 5G telecommunications networks, together with Ericsson (Sweden) and Nokia (Finland). The latter have already declared their readiness to expand their presence in the UK, while talks are also under way with Samsung (South Korea) and NEC (Japan). (SPj)