The UK recognises the importance of telecommunications networks and the need for these to be resilient to changes in equipment markets and supply chains, as outlined by the Department of Digtial, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) in their 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy:

“The UK’s telecoms networks underpin our economy, our work and day-to-day lives and have the potential to deliver economic and social benefits for the UK. But these benefits can only be realised if we have confidence in the security and resilience of the infrastructure that they are built upon. This is why the government undertook a comprehensive review of the supply arrangements for the UK telecoms Critical NationaI Infrastructure (CNI). The 2019 Telecoms Supply Chain Review identified the need to manage and mitigate risks from high risk vendors, introduce a new robust security framework for telecoms, and create a more diverse and competitive supply base for telecoms networks. We have since taken important decisions to limit and exclude high risk vendors in our telecoms infrastructure and have brought forward legislation to place those decisions on a statutory footing. This strategy sets out targeted and ambitious plans to diversify the global telecoms supply market, focusing on three key areas of activity:

• Supporting incumbent suppliers to ensure their resilience and ability to supply the market in the near term, while supporting their transition into the emerging market structure;
• Attracting new suppliers into the UK market to build resilience and competition, prioritising deployments that are in line with our longer term vision;
• Accelerating open-interface solutions and deployment so that we are not reliant on any single vendor and begin to realise our long term vision for a more open and innovative market.”

Having a diverse supplier base offering a choice of readily interoperable and interchangeable products is key to this vision and ensuring that critical infrastructure does not become too heavily reliant on any single solution provider.

In this diversification hub you will find information on: UK government policy designed to actively support diversification in the supply of mobile telecoms infrastructure; the UK open networks ecosystem of organisations developing capability, products and solutions for more open and diverse networks; opportunities for investment into the UK and international value creation related to a more open mobile telecommunications infrastructure equipment.

Click here for a glossary of useful terms related to the Diversification Hub