By Deng Li
UK’s telecom service provider – Sky is facing a network outage, as users are reporting weak signals and loss of mobile connection, this is a sign of disruption caused by the ongoing removal of Huawei equipment.
The UK government wants telecom service providers to remove and replace Huawei equipment from the core 5G network by October 31, 2023. A complete removal of Huawei from 5G network infrastructure is ordered to be completed by 2027. This is causing a major panic in telecom service providers including the cost and deadline of the entire process.
Recent outages are an example of how the Huawei ban is affecting the entire mobile services, reports FT citing people familiar with this matter. Sky serves over 3 million customers in the UK and uses O2 network infrastructure. However, it has its own equipment to offer mobile services.
Sky remains silent on the outage but this scenario is the first sign of major disruption caused by the task of ripping and replacing Huawei around the country.
Sky Mobile customers reported such an outage of network services on social media and complained that the mobile internet is fluctuating. Some even report no signal in some scenarios.
The eventual outcome shows that the ghost of the Huawei replacement is causing issues in mobile services. Not only that, telecom operators have to bear the almost complete cost of the entire procedure.
On the other hand, the analyst believes that this decision of Huawei replacement is slowing 5G expansion and will take back all of the progress to zero.
