US sanctions will have a huge impact on the reliability of Huawei: UK minister

US sanctions designed to restrict the ability of China’s Huawei to source advanced microchips for 5G equipment is likely to have a significant impact on the reliability of the supplier, Britain’s culture minister said on Monday.

Oliver Dowden told Sky News he would not comment on reports that officials are drawing up proposals to stop installing Huawei equipment but said the UK decision was not “not fixed in stone”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday he would proceed carefully on making a decision on Huawei because the government did not want any critical infrastructure to be controlled by “potentially hostile state vendors”.

Also Read:We must proceed carefully on decisions related to Huawei, says UK PM Boris Johnson

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“I don’t want to see our critical national infrastructure at risk of being in any way controlled by potentially hostile state vendors,” Johnson told the Evening Standard when asked about the Chinese telecommunications giant’s possible involvement in Britain’s 5G network. “So we have to think very carefully about how to proceed now.”

British lawmakers have been pushing Prime Minister Boris Johnson to reconsider a January decision to grant Huawei a limited role in Britain’s 5G networks.

Also Read: UK to end use of Huawei technology in its 5G network: Report

Meanwhile, the US telecommunications regulator Federal Communications Commission(FCC) has formally designated China's Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp as posing threats to US national security.

The Mail on Sunday reported that the National Cyber Security Centre was instructed to carry out a review on the situation.

It also reported the organisation found that US sanctions had a major impact on the firm’s viability, the newspaper said.

(With inputs from Reuters)