5G and Huawei: Mobile networks race ahead as government delays

The government continues to delay its decision on whether Huawei equipment can be used in the UK's 5G networks, but the country's mobile operators are racing ahead with their rollouts anyway. As they wait for the much-delayed publication of a government report, UK operators are rolling out Huawei kit as part of the drive to get their 5G networks live. All the main operators have promised to offer 5G this year, which means using Huawei equipment in their radio access networks. As Three told ZDNet: "If you want to launch 5G this year, they're the only game in town." Vodafone already has somewhere between 150 to 200 base stations deployed, and rising fast; ripping those out again would cost tens of millions of pounds. EE has said the first phase of its 5G network will run on top of the existing 4G network -- using Huawei equipment as part of the radio access network. When the UK's mobile operators were designing their 5G networks, the use of Huawei equipment was relatively uncontroversial, as the Chinese company's hardware has been used in UK mobile networks for many years.