BRITAIN’S largest mobile phone network has pulled Huawei’s handsets from the launch of its new super-fast 5G network.
The move by EE follows Google’s decision to stop supplying its Android operating system to the Chinese tech giant, in response to the US putting Huawei on a trade blacklist over security fears.
Marc Allera, chief executive of EE, said the company had “paused” the launch of Huawei’s 5G phones as it did not have the “surety of service” it needed to offer long-term contracts, the Financial Times reported.
“We’ve had to hold that back,” he said. The announcement came as EE today said the UK’s first 5G mobile network would go live next week.
EE said it will initially launch the premium-priced service that promises to slash download times in six cities: London, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester, with more to follow before the end of the year and into 2020. It said it planned to reach 1,500 sites by the end of 2019. Only people with a new 5G-ready device will be able to use the speedier service, said to be up to 150 megabits per second.
Howard Jones, the firm’s head of communications, said 4G — which is nearly six years old — was starting to show its age at peak hours in parts of London, as users try to stream bandwidth-sapping services such as ultra-high definition video and online games.
He said: “Commuting into Waterloo at 8am you can read the train times online but you might not be able to FaceTime the kids or stream high-resolution YouTube videos.”
Mr Jones added faster speeds would offer possibilities for embedding technology into infrastructure such as bus stops, which could “come alive” to display travel information.
