Countryside OpenRan test call to limit reliance on high-risk firms

Rural Britain should be at the centre of efforts to reduce the risk posed by mobile networks’ reliance on the Chinese technology giant Huawei, ministers will be urged this week.

A task force spearheaded by Lord Livingston, the former BT chief executive, will make recommendations to help curb exposure to “high risk” vendors, The Sunday Telegraph understands.

The panel will press for measures to support take-up of open radio access networks (OpenRan), a technology standard that allows more companies to supply equipment to mobile networks.

It has concluded that widespread testing of OpenRan in the countryside could accelerate its commercialisation. It will encourage the Government to join forces with the regulator Ofcom to set up testing sites in rural areas that would remove the barriers for developing OpenRan more quickly.

Those recommendations could stretch to using OpenRan standards to help bring faster full-fibre broadband to hard-to-reach areas as part of the nationwide upgrade.

The task force will also call for a greater duty to be placed on Ofcom to ensure network diversification is treated with the same importance as regulating competition.

Ministers will be advised that the UK must do more to support the creation of standards that are truly compatible with an array of suppliers, or risk repeating the Huawei debacle.

UK mobile networks are poised to spend up to £2bn ripping out Huawei kit after Boris Johnson followed America’s lead and blacklisted the company over spying fears.

BT’s mobile arm EE and Three replaced Huawei with equipment from Nokia and Ericsson, the only firms deemed capable of competing with the Chinese giant on cost and quality.

Oliver Dowden, the Digital Secretary, set up The Telecoms Diversification Task Force last year to ensure Britain was confident of the companies building its 5G networks.

The panel includes Clive Selley, chief executive of Openreach, and Scott Petty, Vodafone UK’s technology boss. Mr Dowden revealed in November that it would set up a £250m fund, establish an industry telecoms laboratory and launch OpenRan trials.

It comes as O2-owner Telefonica, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Orange signed an agreement earlier this year to develop OpenRan as they upgrade their networks to 5G.

A Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport spokesman said it had taken independent advice from experts and “will shortly be publishing the task force’s final recommendations”.