Britain’s BT Group Adds Alabama’s Adtran as Fiber Supplier to Limit Reliance on Huawei

By Thomas Seal
Bloomberg

Britain’s biggest landline network has brought on an Alabama company as a new supplier to help cut its reliance on China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and ramp up construction of a nationwide fiber-optic system.

BT Group Plc’s infrastructure unit Openreach signed a long-term contract to bring in Huntsville’s Adtran Inc. alongside Huawei and Finland’s Nokia Oyj as a strategic partner. Adding an American component-maker will help London-based BT limit the use of China’s Huawei technology in its fiber-optic network and meet national security rules. Adtran and BT didn’t disclose financial terms.

In January, Britain capped at 35% the amount of data that can be carried over Huawei’s full-fiber and 5G equipment, and gave networks three years to comply. The move dealt a blow to the Shenzhen-based vendor, but stopped short of U.S. demands for an outright ban.

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