Telecoms expert 'upset' to see collaboration affected due to Huawei ban

LONDON - "Our collaboration with Huawei for years has yielded good results, and I will be really upset if we lost that collaboration just because of the Huawei ban," Rick Chandler, chairman of the Communications Management Association (CMA), told Xinhua.

An expert in telecommunications and IoT (Internet of Things), Chandler had experience of working with Huawei for nearly 20 years. He said that it will be a great loss for Britain if the collaboration stops.

The British government recently announced that buying new Huawei 5G equipment will be banned after Dec 31, 2020 and all Huawei equipment will be removed from 5G networks by the end of 2027.

Chandler, who used to work at the British telecommunications operator BT, said that he did not see any evidence of security breaches of Huawei.

What made Chandler worried about is the scale and depth the ban might involve. "If it's not just about the 5G but goes further down to the underlying broadband networks, that would be catastrophic," he said.

British Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden admitted that the decision will lead to "a cumulative delay to 5G rollout of two to three years and costs of up to 2 billion pounds ($2.52 billion)" in the country.

For years, Chandler has witnessed the cooperation in various technology sectors between China and Britain. As for Huawei, it has invested massive amounts of money in research in Britain and worked with businesses and universities, which have yielded great results, he said.

"I was really delighted with Huawei's proposal to build a chip design facility near Cambridge, where ARM (a chip designer) is based," he said, adding that it's a good opportunity for both sides to look at the future of chip design and manufacturing.

With Brexit, Britain will also be looking for engineering and technology partners around the world and China is such a big market and manufacturing center which couldn't be ignored, according to Chandler.

"When talking about this, big Chinese names with good technology like Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi will jump into your mind, we have to acknowledge it," he said.

The bilateral cooperation potential is not just about 5G but can be seen in many other fields including AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IoT, he added.

Chandler was looking forward to going to China with a delegation of British engineers to meet their Chinese peers later this year.

"I want to show them how advanced the technology is in China," he said.