Vodafone to remove Huawei equipment from core European networks

Huawei was granted a limited role in building 5G networks in the UK last week by the government 

Vodafone has confirmed it will remove Huawei equipment across its core European networks during the next five years.

The removal of Huawei from the most sensitive parts of Vodafone’s mobile networks is expected to cost £169 million (€200m).

It follows Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision last week to only allow Huawei limited access to the 5G networks in the UK, with the vendor restricted to just 35 per cent of its non-core networks.

Vodafone’s CEO Nick Read confirmed the decision in a conference call held this morning (February 5).

During the call Read said that Vodafone’s business is largely compliant with the government’s stance on Huawei and that the removal will take five years to implement.

Vodafone also released its financials for 2019, with overall Group revenue up six per cent to £9.8 billion from 2018.

In the UK, service revenue grew by 0.6 per cent to £1.08 billion, with Vodafone’s commercial momentum experiencing growth thanks to the launch of ‘Vodafone Unlimited’ mobile data propositions.

Contract churn was down 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 14.8 per cent, with Vodafone citing improved business churn, despite the impact of text-to-switch regulation.

Vodafone also added 116,000 prepaid customers to its base, with the help of its sub-brand VOXI.