New Huawei equipment will be banned from the 5G network from next September in a toughening of measures against the Chinese company.
Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, will set telecoms companies a legal deadline today to stop installing new Huawei equipment, saying that it is essential to protect national security.
The move will further strain relations with Beijing, which has attacked as “groundless” British plans to remove Huawei from the 5G network.
In the summer, the government reversed a previous decision to allow Huawei equipment in less sensitive parts of the network subject to a cap on its share of the market. The U-turn was prompted by US sanctions on Huawei that led security experts to conclude that the company would have to change
