Key Facts

• The Committee shall meet on specific dates and times until January 28th.
• Oral evidence will be taken from various telecommunications organizations and individuals, including Three, O2, Vodafone, British Telecommunications, Mobile UK, TechUK, Mavenir, NEC Europe Ltd, Small Cell Forum, Digital Policy Alliance, British Standards Institution, Royal United Services Institute, Webb Search, Oxford Information Labs, Centre for Science and Security Studies at King’s College London, The Office of Communications, Catapult Compound Semiconductor Applications, Dr Nick Johnson, UtterBerry, MWE Media Ltd, Lumenisity, Dr David Cleevely CBE, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
• The first panel includes Patrick Binchy (Three), Derek McManus (O2), and Andrea Donà (Vodafone).
• Costs associated with removing Huawei equipment from networks are commercially sensitive.
• Three has selected Ericsson as a second vendor for its 5G network.
• The UK telecoms market currently has only two players, Ericsson and Nokia.
• Three Members have indicated they would like to ask questions.
• Patrick Binchy supports the flexibility of the Bill for future threats.
• Derek McManus emphasizes the importance of 'security by design' in network evolution.
• Philip Hollobone aims to rotate who answers questions first.
• The discussion is part of the Public Bill Committee on the Telecommunications (Security) Bill.
• The discussion is part of the Telecommunications (Security) Bill deliberations.
• Hollobone proposes concluding this part of the session at 12:30 pm.
• Five Members are seeking to ask questions.
• The committee has seven minutes left before the hard cut-off at 12:30 pm.
• Speakers are instructed to provide pithy answers due to impending sets of questions.
• Howard Watson is BT Group’s chief technology officer.
• Alex Towers is director of policy and public affairs at BT Group.
• The Bill strengthens protection against potential insider threat and vendor supply chain scrutiny.
• Specific attention is given to high-risk vendors in the telecoms security requirements.
• £250 million has been allocated for a thriving research agenda for UK in recent spending review.
• The Bill allows for secondary legislation and guidelines to be upgraded regularly.
• Howard Watson mentions a seven-year swap-out programme already underway involving Nokia and Ericsson.
• Alex Towers suggests the need for additional investment beyond the £250 million offered for R&D in open RAN.
• Chi Onwurah questions whether network security is possible with only one full-scale vendor.
• Fixed networks, including full-fibre and fibre-to-the-cabinet, have a lower risk profile than mobile networks.
• BT's high-risk vendors are only present in the access part of the network, not in the core fixed network.
• Ofcom reported that full-fibre coverage is at 18%, with BT having built for 3.5 million homes.
• Two vendors are consistently required in the market to ensure continuous deployment.
• Commercial and physical measures are in place to prevent immediate threats to the existing network if one vendor fails.
• Competition between the two remaining vendors has been effective for pricing, particularly for replacement of Huawei equipment.