According to The Guardian: Canada says it will ban Huawei and ZTE from the country’s 5G network, a move that puts it in line with intelligence-sharing allies, but risks further chilling relations with China.
The federal government made the announcement on Thursday afternoon after signaling for months it intended to block China’s flagship telecommunications companies from accessing 5G networks in Canada.
“We’ll take any actions necessary to safeguard our telecommunications infrastructure,” said the innovation minister, François-Philippe Champagne. Telecoms providers who already have equipment from the firms must remove it – and Champagne said there would be no compensation provided by the federal government. Canadian telecom companies have spent nearly had C$700m (US$546m) on Huawei equipment over the years, largely on 4G or LTE equipment.
“We’re disappointed but not surprised. We’re surprised it took the government so long to make a decision,” Huawei spokesman Alykhan Velshi said. “We see this as a political decision, one born of political pressure primarily from the United States.”
