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Huawei: UK 5G network provision

Yomanze said:
Oh, the UK ignored US protectionism and arbitrary blocking of Chinese tech, because they have looked into the facts, and deemed it not so that magic masts with Chinese tech will (or can) siphon off our data to Dear Leader.

End of the day, Eriksson, Nokia etc. are playing catch up with Huawei, so why go for inferior and likely more expensive tech.

Use HTTPS for sites with sensitive data, VPNs and strong encryption when necessary, job done. Security issues are far deeper than China, and far deeper than 5G infrastructure.
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I don't think that you understand the issue. My understanding and I've been out of the industry for 9 years is that the equipment from Huawei is proprietary and incompatible with that from other manufacturers. Think about the implications. For one the UK would be locked in to Huawei without a simple means of migrating away without a 'big bang' approach.

Next 5G is a lot more complex and is designed to support IoT. What this means is that Huawei have the presence to take control over all IoT devices in the UK.

Todays technology is so advanced that in a closed tech environment such as Huawei its easy to embed other intelligence i.e. 'chips' inside existing LSI packages that could monitor and control all sorts of things and we wouldn't know until they were activated and by then it would be too late.

Cheers,

DV
 
Yomanze said:
Oh, the UK ignored US protectionism and arbitrary blocking of Chinese tech, because they have looked into the facts, and deemed it not so that magic masts with Chinese tech will (or can) siphon off our data to Dear Leader.

End of the day, Eriksson, Nokia etc. are playing catch up with Huawei, so why go for inferior and likely more expensive tech.

Use HTTPS for sites with sensitive data, VPNs and strong encryption when necessary, job done. Security issues are far deeper than China, and far deeper than 5G infrastructure.
Click to expand...

Surely the cost is the important issue here. Eriksson, Nokia etc. Tech is fine but doesn’t benefit from huge state subsidies

The Tories are happy for China to build our Powerstations as well. It’s a huge risk they are taking that I think will come back to bite us.

Stephen
 
Couldn't the UK use end-to-end encryption on devices to prevent Huawei from intercepting data over a 5G network?

What I'm envisioning is converting the data stream to the thickest, most incomprehensible Glaswegian, Geordie or Scouse accent then transmitting that modified data from the source over the 5G network. At the other end you employ a Glaswegian, Geordie or Scouse to convert the indecipherable data back into something that regular people can understand.

I've not run any experiments, but I think my end-to-end Glaswegian, Geordie or Scouse encryption concept is sound.

Joe
 
Darth Vader said:
other intelligence i.e. 'chips' inside existing LSI packages that could monitor and control all sorts of things and we wouldn't know until they were activated and by then it would be too late.
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whilst that is possible, it is easy to find. It's the sw that is the issue
 
Encryption is fine for data security, but network integrity is another area of concern. As DV mentions, 5G will support much more than just voice and internet, and is likely to become genuinely critical national infrastructure. Even the sniff of a possibility that a hostile state could in effect launch ransomware on your critical infrastructure is not something to airily dismiss.
 
Darth Vader said:
I don't think that you understand the issue. My understanding and I've been out of the industry for 9 years is that the equipment from Huawei is proprietary and incompatible with that from other manufacturers.
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That is just wrong. Huawei already provide a lot of the core network for EE, Ericsson and Nokia supply O2, Vodafone and 3 is pretty much mostly Samsung but have signed a deal with Huawei. Nokia and Huawei is already providing the kit for BT Openreach FTTC and FTTP where Huawei have the majority share.

All of these vendors interop without any issues and I've never heard any reports that Huawei are incompatible with other manufacturers.

Huawei currently has around 40% share of the UK telecoms market (mobile and broadband)
 
Joe P said:
Couldn't the UK use end-to-end encryption on devices to prevent Huawei from intercepting data over a 5G network?

What I'm envisioning is converting the data stream to the thickest, most incomprehensible Glaswegian, Geordie or Scouse accent then transmitting that modified data from the source over the 5G network. At the other end you employ a Glaswegian, Geordie or Scouse to convert the indecipherable data back into something that regular people can understand.

I've not run any experiments, but I think my end-to-end Glaswegian, Geordie or Scouse encryption concept is sound.

Joe
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While this is an excellent suggestion, I would have thought that Cockney rhyming slang was the way to go.

Am pretty sure this would allow UK citizens to save bread and honey on their dogs and bones.
 
Do we actually need 5 g ? too much information floating about not a good idea .
Also it has been rumoured that 5g requires many more masts at lower level to give the coverage sure
 
It's a different world to 20 years ago and more. Then the UK and friends had a telecommunication supply industry with its own R & D. Companies like Plessey, GEC, STC, Marconi, Nortel Networks, Alcatel, Lucent were all in the business. They were all western aligned and trustworthy.
Many of them dissolved, amalgamated or just got asset stripped to the fraudulent benefit of executives.
Meanwhile the Chinese telecoms industry has grown to be a global giant you cannot now ignore if you require to stay ahead in the game of get there first or fail.

A lot of the Trump indignation is down to sour grapes that the Western economic model has allowed our telecoms industry to fall behind.
 
The GCHQ have gone through the Huawei code, vetting it for backdoors. They have not gone through the "Western" competitors and some of them have track record of backdoors by the US as revealed by Snowden
 
peter bj said:
Do we actually need 5 g ? too much information floating about not a good idea .
Also it has been rumoured that 5g requires many more masts at lower level to give the coverage sure
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I’m sure folk said the same about electricity in the 1920s.
 
davidsrsb said:
The GCHQ have gone through the Huawei code, vetting it for backdoors. They have not gone through the "Western" competitors and some of them have track record of backdoors by the US as revealed by Snowden
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I worked for the British company STC, 20 years ago. They thrived on BT contracts for multiplexes and line systems.
When STC got bought out by a Canadian company the work slowed down considerably.
It wasn't British you know. Not trustworthy!
 
The cause of the issue lies squarely on Thatcher, who allowed critical UK electronics industry to be taken over and closed to help stock exchange greed.
The UK was a key developer of GSM and could have remained a leader in 3/4/5G if the companies had been protected a bit.
 
russel said:
There are a lot of FPGA devices and custom silicon in 5G base stations, it certainly wouldn't be easy to find!.
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I have worked this sector in research for a very long time - they can be found.....I never said it was easy, but it is eminently doable.
 
Does the UK need multiple 5G networks from different providers? Surely, it would be better to have one National network that all users can access? I guess that might mean Nationalisation, or a form of Openreach / Transco for the mobile network industry.

I'm no mobile expert, but as I understand it, someone coming to the UK from a foreign mobile network can access any of the mast providers, whereas UK users are limited to their individual network operator? It seems madness to me and limits service levels, productivity and access to coverage.
 
Stuart Frazer said:
Does the UK need multiple 5G networks from different providers? Surely, it would be better to have one National network that all users can access? I guess that might mean Nationalisation, or a form of Openreach / Transco for the mobile network industry.

I'm no mobile expert, but as I understand it, someone coming to the UK from a foreign mobile network can access any of the mast providers, whereas UK users are limited to their individual network operator? It seems madness to me and limits service levels, productivity and access to coverage.
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It doesn't need them, but it has them, and it's in name of fair competition/cartel, depending on your stance.

This why
common standards are important. Interchange is everything in end to end routing of voice/data.
 
Stuart Frazer said:
Does the UK need multiple 5G networks from different providers? Surely, it would be better to have one National network that all users can access? I guess that might mean Nationalisation, or a form of Openreach / Transco for the mobile network industry.
Click to expand...
In Malaysia the 5G 700 MHz spectrum is to go to a single base station operator and all of the retail operators will use this. There is insufficient spectrum for each operator to do their own infrastructure and it would cost too much. I think the UK will have to do the same thing with the 700 MHz band, which is by far the most suitable for the emergency TETRA network replacement
 
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