The UK government has introduced The Telecommunications (Security) Bill which, it claims will boost the security standards of the country’s telecom networks. It is aimed at forcing companies to remove equipment from high-risk vendors.
As a part of this new law, reported by Reuters, telecom companies in Britain could be fined up to 10 percent of the company’s turnover or 100,000 pounds (approximately $133,140) per day if they contravene the ban on using equipment made by suppliers like Huawei.
Commenting on this, Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “This groundbreaking bill will give the UK one of the toughest telecoms security regimes in the world and allow us to take the action necessary to protect our networks.”
In response to this bill, Huawei Vice President Victor Zhang said that the “decision is politically motivated and not based on a fair evaluation of the risks. It does not serve anyone’s best interests as it would move Britain into the digital slow lane and put at risk the Government’s leveling up agenda.”
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The development comes just days after Huawei’s Vice President Victor Zhang had urged UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to reconsider the decision to ban Huawei from the 5G network development and said that it will worsen England’s north-south divide.
For those who are unaware, the United Kingdom banned Huawei, the world’s leading telecom equipment manufacturer, from taking part in the country’s 5G infrastructure development, bowing down to the pressure from the United States.
It has also asked all the telecom companies in the UK to get rid of Huawei’s equipment from their infrastructure by 2027. This is because there are concerns that Huawei’s equipment could be used by China for spying. However, Huawei has denied all such allegations related to its security.
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