It's better to burn out than fade Huawei: UK rolls out schedule for rip-and-replace rules
- Reference: 1606744988
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/30/dcms_huawei_rip_replace_schedule/
- Source link:
The roadmap adds detail to the previous edicts, which banned wireless carriers from acquiring new Huawei-made equipment by the end of the year, and forces them to fully remove existing Huawei kit by the conclusion of 2027.
By the end of March 2021, networks will be prohibited from using Huawei's managed services, save for specialist maintenance services pertaining to kit installed prior to that date. Additionally, the rules prevent carriers from installing new Huawei infrastructure by the end of September, even if it was bought before the legal cut-off date.
The roadmap also shed much-needed light on the rip-and-replace mandate. Carriers are prohibited from using Huawei equipment in the core network after 28 January 2023. By that date, they must also remove any infrastructure from the Chinese telco kit maker located at "sites significant to national security" and limit the presence of Huawei in 5G, FTTP, and other gigabit-capable networks to 35 per cent.
In a [2]statement , Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said: "Today I am setting out a clear path for the complete removal of high risk vendors from our 5G networks. This will be done through new and unprecedented powers to identify and ban telecoms equipment which poses a threat to our national security.
"We are also publishing a new strategy to make sure we are never again dependent on a handful of telecoms vendors for the smooth and secure running of our networks. Our plans will spark a wave of innovation in the design of our future mobile networks."
The decision to ban Huawei, first [3]announced in July of this year , was justified by the sanctions levelled against the company by the Trump administration which have affected Huawei's ability to source new components for its telecoms and mobile products. This, Dowden said at the time, had a "significant, material" affect on its ability to supply the UK market.
Huawei has repeatedly protested this decision, pointing at its two-decade tenure in the UK market, and partnerships with major fixed-line and wireless carriers like BT, Three, and EE. It regards the US sanctions as [4]politically motivated rather than based on a substantive and proven national security risk.
To fill the Huawei-shaped hole in the UK telecoms supplier market, the ministry is examining new diversification measures, bolstered by an initial funding of £250m. Part of these funds will be used to commence a trial of OpenRAN technology in partnership with NEC.
The RAN (radio access network) is the element in a wireless network that connects devices. OpenRAN is an attempt to build these components using a set of common, interoperable standards, allowing carriers to mix-and-match suppliers.
The NEC NeutrORAN project will aim to have 5G OpenRAN used within the UK by next year, with the first trials planned to take place in Wales. This will coincide with [5]LTE OpenRAN deployments planned by Vodafone, which will see the firm's Huawei estate in the southeast of England and Wales replaced with new vendor-neutral infrastructure over the course of the next three years.
Separately, the ministry has announced funding for new testing and R&D efforts. One facility, SmartRAN Open Network Innovation Centre (SONIC, because it's not just Americans who like tenuous acronyms), will provide a testing playground for new OpenRAN kit, and will be operated in partnership with UK comms regulator Ofcom and Digital Catapult.
Meanwhile, the National Telecoms Lab will allow operators, suppliers, and academia to look at ways to improve security and interoperability by creating and testing "representative networks."
In a statement, Lord Livingston, chair of [6]the UK's telecoms Diversification Task Force , said: "Diversification of the UK Telecoms Supply Chain is very important to ensure that our future networks are secure and resilient and that we can maximise the economic and social potential that 5G brings.
"As Chair of the Telecoms Diversification Taskforce, I fully support the ambition of the strategy and its objectives. In order to position ourselves at the forefront of the next generation of technology, it is vital that we invest in Research & Development, help shape global standards and work closely with our international partners." ®
* Commonly known as the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
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[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-telecoms-security-law-to-protect-uk-from-cyber-threats
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-telecoms-security-law-to-protect-uk-from-cyber-threats
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/14/huawei_ban_uk/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/16/huaweis_elusive_mr_ren_were_just_a_sesame_seeding_a_superpower_spat/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/02/vodafone_openran_wales_southwest_england/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/24/uk_telecoms_diversification_task_force/
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The sanctions are not politically motivated. They are financially motivated. Trump and his buddies wanted business to go to US based manufacturers rather than Huawei. Trump even once suggested that 5G networks jn the US could run on Apple hardware, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Apple do not manufacture any such hardware. He was also reportedly unhappy when US telcos announced plans to replace Huawei hardware with Nokia hardware. After all if he'd started telling his allies to dump all that Chinese hardware and replace it with American kit they may have been a little sceptical, but he probably never expected US telcos to start installing Scandinavian hardware.
The real joke is how much Huawei hardware is already in UK telco's networks but not covered by these sanctions. Apparently it's banned in gigabit capable networks, but it's already rife in ADSL and FTTC networks. Openreach are a long way from completing their roll out of FTTC and while I'm aware that our government are claiming that we will all be on full fibre before long that's just propaganda. If we were all heading for full fibre openreach wouldn't be continuing to roll out FTTC (not on Huawei hardware surely?) And there are still plenty of ADSL lines in use, many of which connect to Huawei hardware.
If this stuff was so dangerous they wouldn't want it in any network.
However UK.gov know full well that if they want every existing Huawei DSLAM, MSAN, switch or router removing from UK net works they will need to pay considerable compensation. So they are just hoping that nobody in the media notices that all that kit is out there.
Oh and you probably don't want to know how much of that kit hasn't had its firmware updated in ten years per more.
Firmware updates
> Oh and you probably don't want to know how much of that kit hasn't had its firmware updated in ten years per more.
Am I the only one here who thinks that's a good thing?
Oh here, have this encrypted binary blob and flash your rootfs with it. I've even signed it, to say it definitely came from me. Will I show you what's in it? Don't be so paranoid! Just make sure you install it regularly every time I release a new one!
Of course, I'm not stupid, I know that zero-days exist in almost everything these days and that kit should be patched to plug them, but really, embedded stuff with a limited feature set like a 5G modem shouldn't NEED a complicated OS that is capable of executing arbitrary code, and if it's written right, there shouldn't be anything to update until the specification changes.
"The sanctions are not politically motivated. They are financially motivated."
A distinction without a difference.
Right..
So in future all cheap IT gear to come from Weihua, Mao Telecoms, Alibaba, Taobao...
Other approved suppliers include: Mossad, GRU, CIA, Intel, MS & Google but they are a bit more expensive, re-badged Taobao units with the phone-home address updated.
Will this improve the UK's national security situation? Nope, it probably makes it worse (by poking a very powerful and already rather angry adversary)
Will it improve the British economy? Nope.. Certainly not for the 1000-2000 UK Huawei employees, many at the brand new Huawei UK HQ in Reading..
Will it appease the Labour peers and get Oliver Dowden CBE, out of hot water at Minifun?
Yes, Minister!
I believe you can buy good encryption gear from Swiss manufacturers.
I know El Reg is running adverts from the Chinese Communist Party, but what ever happened to not letting advertisers influence your editorial?
> It regards the US sanctions as politically motivated rather than based on a substantive and proven national security risk.
Is there anyone - outside of the politicians themselves - who doesn't view it this way?
This side of the pond, we had extensive security service auditing of Huawei kit and firmware - a level of access that we're not given by any of the... ahem... friendly competitors. The conclusion from that auditing seems to be that Huawei's code is shonky, needs improvement, but not malicious.
Which I suspect kind of lines up with the experience of anyone who's actually worked with Huawei on, well, anything. They seem to ignore requirements, dream up their own spec and as a result implement some utter crap, and then refuse to fix it (suggesting you pay a lot more to have the requested changes integrated), so your deployment either runs massively over budget, or goes live with string and tape in place to work around their issues.
Maybe it's a little harsh, but I'm not sure I have much faith that they could deliberately implement backdoors and have them work.
In the long run, our networks will probably be better off without them, as there are a ton of technical arguments against using them, but I'm not sure state spying is anything but politically originated bullshit.