LONDON (Reuters) – U.S sanctions designed to restrict the ability of China’s Huawei to source advanced microchips for 5G equipment is likely to have an impact on the viability of the supplier for Britain, the country’s media secretary Oliver Dowden said.
Britain granted Huawei a limited role in its future 5G networks in January but officials at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have since been studying the impact of the U.S. measures that were announced in May.
“We have, since the middle of May, had the U.S. sanctions in respect of Huawei, so clearly given that those sanctions are targeted at 5G (…) it is likely to have an impact on the viability of Huawei as a provider for the 5G network,” he told a parliamentary select committee.
Dowden said the government was in the latter stages of reviewing the NCSC analysis. “Off the back of that we will determine what policy measures if necessary need to be taken in response.”
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton)
