New Zealand plans to restrict the use of Huawei equipment?

Huawei said Britain's decision to allow the company a limited role in parts of 5G networks is a move New Zealand wants to take a similar approach to, Reuters reported.

Recently, sources told Reuters that the UK National Security Council (NSC) has decided to ban Huawei from all core parts of the country's 5G network and restrict its access to non-core parts, but allow Huawei to participate in limited "non-core" 5G network projects such as antennas.

New Zealand, also a member of the Five Eyes alliance, had rejected an initial request by local telecommunications company Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network in November last year, but later offered the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

"The restrictive approach proposed by the UK to allow Huawei to bid is exactly the solution New Zealand has been looking for," Andrew Powell, vice president of Huawei New Zealand, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it had noted the developments in the UK and would raise the matter with the GCSB. Andrew Pirie, Spark's head of corporate relations, said in an email that the reports show that the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a balanced approach to managing vendor-related security risks in 5G construction.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that developments in the UK will be a topic of further discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand Intelligence Minister Andrew Little did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition, British Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said today (26) that the leak of confidential discussions about Huawei's role in the UK's 5G network supply chain is unacceptable and does not rule out a criminal investigation into the matter.

Syed Faraz Hasan, a communications engineering and networking expert at Massey University in New Zealand, said decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei equipment in non-core parts of their 5G networks made it more difficult for New Zealand to boycott Huawei unless there was a convincing argument against its equipment.