Australia: TPG abandons mobile network plan over Huawei ban

Australian company TPG Telecom announced on Tuesday, January 29, it had abandoned the rollout of what would have been the country’s fourth mobile network because of a ban on Chinese giant Huawei, reported the Financial Times.

In light of the ban announced in August, “that upgrade path has now been blocked,” TPG’s statement said. TPG said in its statement it did not make commercial sense to continue investing in a network that could not be upgraded easily to a 5G standard, which will offer faster consumer services and which will support an increasing number of industrial applications.

Australia blocked Huawei and Chinese mobile device maker ZTE from its 5G network due to security concerns. The government stated involvement of a company “likely to be subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government” presented too much risk.

“It is extremely disappointing that the clear strategy the company had to become a mobile network operator at the forefront of 5G has been undone by factors outside of TPG’s control,” said David Teoh, executive chairman of TPG.