Banning Huawei from building new 5G wireless network won't really hurt Canada's big telecom firms

If the federal government moves to ban Huawei from working to build Canada's new 5G network, it is unlikely to have a major financial impact on two of the country's top communications companies who have partnered with the China-based firm, analysts say. Huawei’s equipment is already used in telecommunications infrastructure run by Canada's major cellphone carriers, namely BCE and Telus. Those two companies are currently in 5G pretrial stages with Huawei, a company some western intelligence officials consider a security risk due to its links with China's government. As the next-generation wireless technology, 5G promises to deliver much faster internet download speeds — possibly up to 200 times faster than today's LTE networks.Huawei exec's arrest halting Chinese firms' Canadian expansion plans, says auto sector spokesman Some fear for tourism as Huawei arrest strains Canada-China relations.Desmond Lau, a telecommunications analyst with investment research firm Veritas, said BCE and Telus have not put a lot of capital into 5G trials, so the financial hit from a ban on Huawei's participation wouldn't be large."It doesn't sound like all that much has been spent on 5G," Lau said, adding that neither company has disclosed what they have spent so far. "They also have Nokia as another 5G partner, so they could probably just switch all toward Nokia if they really needed to."BCE and Telus did not respond to inquiries from CBC News about their relationship with Huawei on building Canada's 5G network.