There could be mobile phone blackouts across the UK if the government forces phone companies to strip Huawei out of their networks, MPs have been told.
BT and Vodafone executives today warned parliament that if the government forced them to completely remove Huawei’s equipment from their networks suddenly, it would cost billions of pounds and lead to customers losing phone signal for several days.
The science and technology committee hearing follows reports that the government is set to order the phasing out of the Chinese company’s technology from the UK’s networks due to security concerns.
The UK is reassessing its previous decision to allow Huawei equipment a limited role within the country’s 5G networks following new sanctions imposed by the US government.
“If the current guidance were to be tightened and further restrictions were to be imposed, we would need to spend in the order of billions to change our
