BT Group PLC (LON:BT.A) boss Philip Jansen said security and safety for the company’s 24 mobile customers could be put at risk if the company is forced to rip Huawei equipment out across its network too fast.
A statement is expected from the government on Tuesday about the removal of the Chinese tech giant’s 5G telecoms units.
Ministers have reportedly been pressured by parts of the Conservative party to remove Huawei equipment from the UK mobile network from 2023.
There is speculation that Downing Street might be unwilling to go this far as it would make it nigh-on impossible to fulfil Boris Johnson’s pledge to have “gigabit broadband sprouting in every home” by the end of 2025.
READ: BT faces double whammy from further Huawei 5G restrictions
So the government is expected to say that no new 5G equipment from Huawei can be installed after 2021, and that all its existing 5G kit must be removed later by 2025
Removing all Huawei units in the 5G network would ideally need seven years, BT boss Jansen told the BBC on Monday, but he said the company “could probably do it in five”.
He warned doing more than that could be dangerous, with BT’s EE mobile network using Huawei's equipment to provide its 2G, 4G and 5G networks, and its Openreach arm using the Chinese company’s technology in its fibre broadband exchanges.
“If you wanted to have no Huawei in the whole of the telecoms infrastructure across the whole of the UK, I think that's impossible to do in under 10 years,” he said.
He added: “We need to make sure that any change of direction doesn't lead to more risk in the short-term, I think that's where the detail really matters.
“If we get in a situation where things need to go very fast, then we go into a situation where service for 24mln BT Group mobile customers is put into question, outages would be possible.
“Secondly, the security and safety in the short-term could be put at risk — this is really critical here.”
Jansen said if all dealing with Huawei were ended it would mean no software upgrades would be possible on the equipment.