Does a decision on Huawei loom?

Huawei has been getting a kicking over the last six months as the speculation on their involvement in the UK 5G network continues to echo throughout the market. Digital Secretary Nicky Morgan has stated that she hopes to have a firm decision by the end of the year but given the scale of the Brexit negotiations Boris Johnson has just taken on it's tough to see a decision being reached this side of Christmas.

In the interim, it's the likes of Cisco and Juniper who will be busily going about their 5G business in the UK safe in the knowledge that Huawei can't join the party whilst a decision hangs in the balance.

However, despite the delay on a Huawei decision the Government has been able to develop its plans for accelerating the 5G roll out by proposing that higher 5G masts can be built without planning permission. The rules would mean that the current maximum height of 25m would be relaxed and we could see masts up to 50m (the current maximum height allowed in mainland Europe).

Questions still remain around how many masts we would need if the new rules were accepted, 5G requires more masts than previous iterations but taller masts might mean fewer of them need to be built.

To help fuel some of this 5G development a ￡30m Government-backed competition has been announced to encourage companies to run 5G trials in rural areas.

All this on the morning where it is announced that HS2 could be over budget by ￡30bn! A figure which has been touted as the cost of getting the UK to full-fibre. It does beg the question whether public funds are being diverted in the best possible manner.

If we went full-fibre I wonder if the demand for a London/Birmingham/ Manchester high-speed rail connection would still be as high as purported.

A question for Boris and Sajid I guess.

Have a great week.