LONDON - Britain's culture minister said telecoms firms Ericsson and Nokia need to be protected as alternatives to Huawei after announcing plans to ban the Chinese firm from Britain's 5G network.
"We are already working with all our Five Eyes partners on those alternatives," Oliver Dowden told parliament, referring to cooperation between the group of allies comprising the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
"The first thing we need to do is ensure that we protect the other two vendors in this market so Nokia, and Ericsson. Secondly we need to get new suppliers in, that starts with Samsung, and it starts with NEC," he said.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle and William James; writing by Costas Pitas; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) ((Costas.Pitas@thomsonreuters.com; 02075428024; Reuters Messaging: costas.pitas.thomsonreuters@reuters.net and @Cpitas on Twitter))
