 Hello and welcome to news click today. We are joined by Praveep Rukhaisan We will be talking about the decision by the United Kingdom to phase out Huawei's equipment from their 5g network Now this decision basically implies that British firms will not be allowed to purchase Equipment from Huawei after December 31st of this year and by 2027 they need to remove all of the company's equipment from their networks So Praveep to start with to just get a technical Understanding of really what's happening here. What exactly does it mean when we say that Huawei's equipment is being moved out of the 5g network in a country? Well, the as you know the 5g network has become the bone of contention Because this is one area China is clearly ahead of the rest Both in terms of the technology itself They have been the pioneers of this technology in terms of rolling out network and rolling out the entire gamut of Equipment which is necessary for the networks from the phones to the network to all the other Components which make it interface with other systems. So Huawei they had that technically as Systems but they also and it's important to understand this They also have set much of the standards in that area In fact, I think Chinese contributions are almost 60% of the total standard Standard that are emanated from the standardization committee Which of course is all a lot of other countries and a lot of other companies as well And the third part is the patents Huawei still holds Currently holds a very large number of patents and 5g technology So all these three areas the Chinese had a Chinese company Huawei had a lead and of course with the recent tech or trade war between China and the United States the United States really launched Huawei has been Target and it's a target because it's also threat to a lot of other Western companies in telecom And certainly the American companies because America really at the moment is nothing comparable to what Huawei can deliver to any Country in the world. So to keep them out is a defensive war at first Okay, even if it postpones 5g technology introduction to a number of countries So be it including the United States But so be it while, you know, this lead cannot be translated the tech lead cannot be translated in terms of market share That seems to be the intent of the Huawei band specifically because Huawei 5g band is also What shall we say also strategic? It only talks about one particular area where the United States and other Western countries are behind and Therefore not letting the 5g technology be market be dominated by Huawei seems to be the intention of the band Of course, there is a larger trade or tech war at play and which we'll talk about So this is one issue where the United Kingdom is a part of five Five eyes alliance as you know the stooping alliance the global stooping alliance that the UK Not accepting the American Decision to not allow 5g and also the passive implicit threat the US made But if it doesn't then will it be able to do information sharing with UK means that UK has now Rethought their options and with UK going out of the European common European Union There is also the issue that their obvious Alliance is now the United States. They're not a part of the European Union The economically they will have to find other partners and Finding a big partner in the world today If it is not European Union is either China or the United States and clearly The UK is far more comfortable with the United States It has always been a very close ally within Europe of the United States The there are talks about it being America's poodle and so on which will not refer to here But the reality is it is you the United States closest ally in the European Union I'm probably in the world and therefore it's finally falling in line Means at least the five eyes alliance now is solidified against allowing a who are we in and Therefore there is a market now for other companies. What will the European Union countries do as of now? As you know European Union does not take a unified position on any of these things These are country by country decisions and it as of date This is still very opaque which countries will go the United States which countries won't because effectively They'll have to wait for new 5g technologies to emerge against something which is already available Which can speed up the networks enormously, which has a lot of what is called IOP Internet of things Applications so a whole bunch of things then Technologically those countries which do adopt 5g later will then be behind and as you know Telecom by itself is not the technology Telecom allows communication of various people devices and various formats of communication So speed which is what 5g really offers a much faster speed of 5g Therefore is a critical component of that communication Network that speed or increase of communication Throughput will allow people to do things which they otherwise could not you cannot think of our Netflix streaming without really fiber broadband network being there. That's what really allows the Streaming things to work as we are doing now Zoom if the pandemic it appeared five years earlier Then all of the things we do a lot of the things we do have been relatively more difficult So therefore this is really more about that not allowing the Chinese to come into the space also means Willingness to delay a certain set of technologies in their own countries and the countries of allies and which way other countries will Go as to be seen because it's not really just about 5g technology It's not question of alignments on the strategic issues But it is also the question of what direction your market is going to take and whether you go with it Allow 5g technologies to be deployed very quickly or you want to wait and adopt the quote-unquote NATO countries technologies and therefore not come under the wrath or the sanctions of the United States or the disfavor of the United States That becomes then the issue and a lot of countries are saying we really can't wait till the US and other countries Offer us something we cannot we also do not know what the cost of that of those technologies not 5g We have it from the Chinese side We have a clear idea what that technology will cost and it's a working system You know that's a huge difference between a working system and something which is going to work in the future So I think given that this is something that is is going to damage the both sides Certainly Huawei is going to be damaged in terms of the market that it is going to get but it doesn't come with No damage to the other side as well because they are going to get behind a certain set of Countries and certain set of companies in not having access to 5g technology as quickly as they would have If Huawei the tested tried and the clear front leader in the technology was available to service its needs And probably early talked about how of course this is part of a larger tech what you mentioned right now also and a lot of this actually goes back to sanctions that were the rule that was imposed in May by the United States where it said that any company even foreign companies selling Equipment to Huawei needs to get a License from the US if they're using US made equipment that is and that it there's a lot of questions Regarding how Huawei is going to deal with it itself because it does get a lot of supplies from foreign companies while manufacturing Semiconductors, so what are the options really in front of Huawei? You know this is again something we have discussed earlier It's very clear that there is a whole set of things that Huawei can do and do manufacture They American equipment per se is not going to hurt them as much What is really going to hurt them the critical area in which they have they could have a problem Is that the arm processors are the ones which are used widely by all companies who use what are called embedded systems those where you embed the computer Quote unquote the processors as a part of an equipment Now arm has literally taken over most of these applications worldwide Arm is a company which is originally a UK company which is now owned by I think Japanese soft bank if I'm not mistaken But the basic thing about arm processors is arm doesn't manufacture them They have the design and the software which then they give to companies who want to buy their technology And they create the processor within their factory or silicon foundries which are available for doing such Implementation so it's a hardware implementation is not done by arm. I'm really creates a software in this 25% Component come apparently from American universities and that's the rule that the US has used to say arm cannot Therefore sell it to anybody that America embargoes and obviously Huawei has now been embargo So this is the crucial Question that faces Huawei that are how far behind are they going to be if they have to develop their own Processes because they have been Preparing for this for quite some time They knew at some point or the other US could have a band And I think they were ready on almost all the other issue. They knew that they had options They had other suppliers. They had Chinese Supplies as well But all of this while they had thought they hadn't thought looks to me that the arm processor itself Which is not an American product would come under an embargo to the back door So to say because of the software component that is that's used to create the arm Processor software effect with the design as I said the design is really software that you then Use to create the arm processor in hardware So given that the issue that is there is how long will it take for them to develop processors equivalent to the arm processors that are there and What we see and again We really don't know that it could take them from 18 months to five years They have been estimates of both kinds if they're they could take about 18 months to develop the processor A new processor of the same capability They have actually right now the ability with the current arm designs to be competitive in almost all spheres for another maybe 18 months to 36 months The by 18th to 36th month, they would be not at the cutting edge today. For instance, if you take a Cell phone take a mobile phone that you will see the Huawei Technologies are in par with all other Technologies including Samsung high-end Samsung phones high-end iPhones They have on par or better than all of them So given that how long does one generation last about 18 months before a new generation? Really comes in and at the moment Therefore they probably have about 12 to 18 months as a window in which they if they're able to produce a processor Then they will not fall behind But if they cannot produce a full processor and the longer they take by the way, whatever arm processors They have got they have the right to produce that so that is not been that cannot be embargoed as I said because of the software It's not a new transaction. It cannot be embargoed so they already have that because of that they can produce the arm processors and That if it lasts for 12 to 18 months in terms of generation Then whatever equipment they make with it They'll be in part with everybody else in the world after that is issue So 12 to 18 months is the window they have to come on par if they don't they'll start falling behind Nobody doubts that the Chinese given the size of the technical Manpower woman power and their prowess which they have shown as I said the majority of the 5g patents today Are held by Chinese companies or Chinese government or Chinese universities? So given that we don't doubt the technical prowess or the ability to do so But how much time it will take for them to do so is the question the reports coming by the Chinese side They have said they will read they'll be ready with 12 months to 18 months But whether they're whistling in the dark or is it real? We don't know We'll actually see as I say the proof of the pudding is when we are eating it We'll know when they have devices which have their indigenous processors and which they're able to then give to us on all other Areas. Yes, some damage some loss functions We can all of that, but it is not really something that will stop who away from manufacturing equally good By their phones or equipment or other stuff that they do So I think the crucial issue is really going to come under processes But I must also tell you that the whole argument that is coming from the United States That all of this is because why who are we has backdoor and steels technology is all one come they've never provided an iota of proof it's just sheer campaign and Unfortunate part is there is documentary evidence, which as you know with Snowden coming out of the United States and Leaking a whole bunch of documents. It is there in black and white as I say that American agencies the spy agencies working closely with American companies to create backdoors which are then available for compromising Shall we see the security of any equipment which was built on that? Intelligence officials all over the world have known including Indian ones that American equipment has backdoors, particularly their internet routers Firewalls all of that have backdoors and therefore if you want to use it, of course, you take that risk If you don't you have to manufacture your own equipment most of the countries are not in a position to Manufacture their equipment. Therefore, they have to take other measures to see how to protect their own Security how to protect their networks if you see Snowden Document you will see there is a network diagram for instance of the Indian network and it shows that how many of the points Shall be some network Routers or some of the connectors you can see that there are they are compromised and the diagram is in public domain So this is this is a game that America has played what they're now saying is because we have played this game We know that the Chinese are capable of playing this game So we have no evidence of it, but it they must be also doing so So you should allow your country secrets to be safe with us But it is not safe for the Chinese and Chinese equipment The Chinese argument is US could get away with that because the dominant global player We can't therefore if we even think about putting any backdoors and one of them gets leaked our entire market would go So we are not stupid enough to do that So, you know this this whole argument therefore of who are we backdoes and so on is At the level of the argument of course the same as saying China hid intelligence Information regarding COVID-19. They're sterilizing we goers. We have a whole bunch of campaign which is not taking off it's more a reflection of the American US war on China, which is not a hot war But it's not in a cold war either it is at the moment a tech war a communication war an Information war all of these are taking place and I think it's really a part of that campaign that we are hearing Thank you so much for being for talking to us. That's all your time for today. Keep watching this game