U.K. Tech Chief Says U.S. Huawei Decision Will Affect Approach

The treatment of Huawei by the U.S. and other countries will inform how Britain approaches the Chinese company’s role in 5G networks, the U.K.’s digital minister said, according to Bloomberg.

While telecom carriers are impatient for the U.K. to take a decision on the matter, there are “number of factors to take into account, some of which are outside our shores,“ Jeremy Wright, secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, said.

Speaking at Bloomberg’s Sooner Than You Think conference in London, Wright said the U.S. administration is making “judgments in a hugely interconnected telecoms world“ so that what the “American administration decides to do will have an impact on what we consider when we come to think about Huawei.“

The U.S. has been pressing allies like the U.K. and Canada to ban Huawei from 5G networks, including by threatening to limit intelligence-sharing, only for Trump to say last week the step wouldn’t be necessary with Britain. The U.K. is near the end of a review of its telecom supply chain. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in April that Britain is poised to toughen the rules under which Huawei operates in the country, while stopping short of an outright ban.