EE and Vodafone drop Huawei phones from 5G network launch

The mobile operators EE as well as Vodafone have actually dropped Huawei phones from their 5G launch plans, as the backlash in the UK versus the Chinese firm gathers speed.

Huawei was then dealt a further blow on Wednesday when the British chip designer ARM claimed it would quit accrediting its silicon chip technology to the company.

EE claimed it had dropped Huawei phones from its 5G launch plans as it announced it would be the first mobile operator offering 5G in the UK, going live in 6 cities on 30 May.

Britain’s biggest phone network claimed it would certainly turn on 5G at first in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham and also Manchester.

By the end of the year, 5G would be broadened to 16 cities including Nottingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, Hull, Leeds, Newcastle and also Glasgow, it stated. EE included that the network would grow to 50 towns and also cities in 2020.

EE said it took the decision to drop Huawei 5G phones after Google’s decision earlier this week to comply with US ban as well as stop providing its Android operating system to the Chinese firm.

Marc Allera, the head of BT’s customer department, stated: “Until we have the information and confidence that ensures our customers will get support for the lifetime of their devices with us then we’ve got the Huawei devices on pause.”

Vodafone, which is planning to turn on 5G on 3 July in 7 cities, did the same, revealing it would certainly no longer be using a Huawei 5G phone at launch.

“We are pausing preorders for the Huawei Mate 20 X (5G) in the UK,” a spokesman said. “This is a temporary measure while uncertainty exists regarding new Huawei 5G devices. We will keep this situation under review.”

Paolo Pescatore, a telecoms analyst, stated Huawei’s absence from EE’s initial offering might impact adoption of 5G by UK consumers.

Cambridge-based ARM, which is owned by Japan’s SoftBank and also layouts mobile microprocessors that power a lot of the world’s mobile phones as well as tablet computers, said the decision to put on hold business with Huawei has been taken to follow the United States banning order.

A spokesperson from ARM company said: “We value our close relationships with our partners, but recognise the pressure some of them are under, as a result of politically motivated decisions.

“We are confident this regrettable situation can be resolved and our priority remains to continue to deliver world-class technology and products to our customers around the world.”