Australia’s high-speed mobile internet is yet to flourish but it will not allow Chinese telecommunication equipment Huawei and ZTE to its borders.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that the government tried hard to find ways to let these companies build next-generation high-speed mobile internet into the country. However, due to national security issues, the government decided to ban these companies to avoid ‘future risks.’
In the 5G network setup, the third-party and mobile provider can access data and network, tracking the location of billions of cell phone users as well as eavesdropping to conversations.
Turnbull said that since the company has the access and capability, it can ‘act adversely to your interest.’
“No one is suggesting that Huawei would do that, certainly not me. I have great admiration for the company but capability takes a long time to put in place. Intent can change in a heartbeat, so you have got to hedge and take into account the risk that intent can change in the years ahead,” said Turnbull.
Turnbull added, “We have to, in an uncertain world, hedge against contingencies where people who we have friendly relations with, we may not necessarily be friends with in the near future.”
Australia isn’t the only country to ban these Chinese telecommunications companies. United States, New Zealand, Japan and even Canada banned these companies under security grounds.
It all started with USA authorities blocked Chinese cellular hardware in concerns over military base communications. Japan cellular providers also complied with the government’s decision to ban these companies and stop using any equipment and networking gears.
Meanwhile, The Epoch Times reported that UK criticized Huawei for ‘serious security vulnerabilities’.
The UK board is overseeing equipment from Huawei and could only give limited assurance of long-term risks. They also said that security flaws brought up to Huawei in 2018 had no material progress yet.
