Canada’s decision whether or not to allow Huawei to come

TORONTO (AP) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that Canada will decide in a matter of weeks whether to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei access to the country’s next-generation 5G wireless networks and noted that large companies telecommunications companies have already started removing Huawei from their networks.

Canada and its security agencies have explored whether to use Huawei’s equipment as carriers prepare to deploy fifth-generation technology, designed to support vast network expansion to facilitate medical devices, self-driving cars and other uses.

Two of the three major Canadian telecommunications companies have already said they have decided not to use Huawei for their 5G networks. Bell Canada said Sweden-based Ericsson would be its supplier and Telus Corp. said he chose Ericsson and Nokia. Rogers already has a long-standing partnership with Ericsson.

“We have actually seen that many, if not all, Canadian telecommunications companies have started taking Huawei off their networks and moving forward in a way that does not involve them as a company,” Trudeau said in a statement. press conference.

“We continue to weigh and examine the different options. We will definitely be making announcements in the coming weeks. “

The Canadian government is studying the use of Huawei as Canada and China emerge from a dispute the Canadian foreign minister has said the country will never forget.

China’s imprisonment of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor has been widely viewed as retaliation for the arrest in Canada of Huawei senior official Meng Wanzhou under a US extradition warrant. China released the couple on Friday after Meng reached a deal with U.S. federal prosecutors that demanded that the fraud charges against her be dropped next year and allowed her to return to China.

Canada arrested Meng on an extradition request from the United States in December 2018. China caught the two Canadians days later.

Many countries have called China’s arrest of Kovrig and Spavor a “hostage policy,” while China has described the charges against Huawei and Meng as a politically motivated attempt to curb China’s economic and technological development. China.

Huawei is the world’s largest supplier of network hardware used by phone and internet companies, but US officials have long viewed it as a front for spying on the Chinese military and its security services – allegations denied by the company.

The United States has urged Canada and other countries to exclude Huawei equipment from their next-generation wireless networks. The United States and Australia have banned Huawei.