5g

Tuesday

Bob Seely

It’s not all good news on Huawei

As with any cell phone contract, the devil is in the small print – and that perhaps is the case with the UK government’s announcement today on Huawei. On the face it is, Tuesday’s ban is very good news. Huawei, the Chinese telecoms giants whose detractors claim is a front for the Chinese Communist party’s desire to dominate UK and global advanced telecoms, needs to be out of the UK’s 5G network by later this decade — 2027 — while no new Huawei kit will be sold into the 5G network after the end of this year. However, the small print is critical and there is a catch — or two. BT and other major vendors can still put Huawei kit bought this year into the network until 2026.

huawei

Wednesday

Amber Duke

Why is Trump protecting a microchip company with close ties to China?

The United States and China are locked in a battle for technological superiority. President Trump has blacklisted tech giant Huawei over concerns the company will leverage its control of 5G networks to spy on behalf of the Chinese Communist party. The crackdown shows the administration is acutely aware of the national security implications of outsourcing network and chip technology. But the concerns don’t end with foreign-owned companies. Qualcomm, US-owned and the one of the world’s largest chip companies, has developed an intensely close relationship with China, potentially making it a trojan horse for communist influence. Qualcomm has been on Trump’s radar.

qualcomm

Friday

Robert Spalding

I tried to warn the National Security Council about China — and was fired for it

The societal implications of 5G — on how we live and how we work — are truly mind-boggling. And so is the capacity to abuse that power. Let’s be totally clear: anything connected to an unsecured 5G network will be a potential weapon that can be used to gain geopolitical influence and control. If China were to control a 5G network, it would be able to weaponize the technology within entire cities — or entire countries — served by that network and hold that city or state at its mercy.

5g national security council

Thursday

Charles Moore

Coronavirus is a metaphor for Britain’s vulnerability over Huawei

Monday night’s House of Commons rebellion over Huawei was on a surprisingly serious scale for a new government with a big mandate. The problem for the UK government is not just the actual danger of our security being breached by Huawei, real though that is. It is also strategic. The government is not treating the subject this way, but sees it as merely a matter for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. This is a bad mistake. We have achieved Brexit. We are making our own way in the world. Our closest allies in terms of trust, language, cultural links, democratic values and shared interests are our four partner nations in the ‘Five Eyes’ deep intelligence partnership — the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

huawei

Monday

James Adams

The brave new world of 5G

To those who understand it, 5G is the next exciting piece of technology and it is coming to your neighborhood soon. For the rest of us, it is a number and letter that mean almost nothing, but we talk about it as if we really do understand our future and how great it's going to be.The theory goes that 5G is a game-changing new generation of wireless technology, a little like the iPhone of today compared with the old rotary telephone. The scientists behind 5G believe it will, at last, deliver very high data speeds to every connected device and do so with extraordinary reliability.Today, 5G has been deployed in 20 American cities from New York to Atlanta with a further 10 coming online before the end of the year.

5g