O2 will trial Huawei 5G equipment despite security concerns and growing political tension

British mobile phone network provider O2 will go ahead with trialling Huawei's 5G equipment in the New Year, despite increasing political tension surrounding the Chinese telecoms firm.

It will be the first time that the equipment is used in the UK since concerns about the company's security were raised by both the UK and US.

Despite warnings that the company could not be trusted to deliver 5G, O2 will test the new generation of mobile internet at 200 cell sites around London, while rivals EE and Vodafone have already agreed conducted trials with Huawei's equipment. 

An O2 spokesperson said that the trials would involve replacing Nokia equipment for Huawei's.

“We are testing Huawei radio equipment before we deploy it on some of our cell sites in London," the spokesperson said. "We do this with all vendors in order to drive optimum network performance for our customers."

The new 5G networks wil offer faster services for consumers and support an increasing number of industrial applications. 

In the US, Australia and New Zealand, governments have frozen Huawei out from being involved in 5G builds but UK telecoms executives claim it would delay the rolling out of the latest mobile internet by up to a year. 

It comes during a time of increasing political pressure on the Chinese firm as the arrest of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of its founder. 

Wanzhou was arrested in Canada at the start of the month for violating sanctions imposed on Iran by using a subsidiary of Huawei.