What you should know about the 5G network 3:36
(Reuters) --
Canada announced on Thursday that it plans to ban the use of 5G equipment from Huawei Technologies and China's ZTE to protect national security, joining the rest of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance.
"We intend to exclude Huawei and ZTE from our 5G networks," Canada's Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters in Ottawa.
"Vendors that already have this equipment installed will have to stop using it and retire it under plans announced today."
Champagne added that the companies will have to retire their 5G equipment before June 2024 and will not be reimbursed.
Companies that use their 4G equipment will have to retire them by the end of 2027.
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The widely anticipated decision had been delayed amid diplomatic tensions with China.
The rest of the Five Eyes alliance, made up of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, had previously banned the teams.
A customer experiences the P50 Pocket, the world's first foldable 5G mobile phone, at a Huawei store in Shanghai, China, on January 1, 2022.
In September 2018, Canada first announced that it would review potential national security threats when adopting Huawei equipment.
Then, in December of that same year, Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada on a US court order, sparking a long-running dispute with China that finally ended last September with Meng's release.
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Following Meng's arrest, two Canadians were arrested by Beijing and charged with espionage.
The two men were released the same day as Meng.
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Now diplomatic tensions between China and Canada have eased somewhat.
On Wednesday, China lifted a three-year restriction on Canadian canola seed imports, reversing what was seen as a retaliatory move for Meng's detention.
Thursday's decision comes after Canada's telcos opted to use other companies' 5G network hardware.
ZTE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alykhan Velshi, Huawei's vice president of corporate affairs in Canada, said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that the company is still waiting to hear "what kind of national security threats they think Huawei poses."
Velshi said that Huawei still has 1,500 employees in Canada, mostly in research and development, and that it sells products such as cell phones, and will continue to do so.
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In 2020, Bell Canada and rival Telus Corp, two of the largest wireless network service providers, partnered with Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia Oyj to build fifth-generation (5G) telecommunications networks, bypassing Huawei for the project despite using Huawei 4G equipment.
In addition to the ban, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino said Canada would draft new legislation to protect critical financial, telecommunications, energy and transportation infrastructure from cyber threats.
Huawei 5G networks