Huawei Counts Cost Of Western Bans As UK Business Withers

Huawei's business in Britain has dwindled in the half-decade since the UK acquiesced to demands from the US to ban the Chinese networking giant from local telco networks.

In its latest profit and loss accounts for the year ended December 31, 2024, Huawei Technologies UK generated just £188.2 million ($159.6 million) in revenues versus £1.26 billion ($1.7 billion) in 2019. Sales peaked in the prior year at £1.28 billion.

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"Revenue in 2024 decreased by 18 percent, primarily due to planned downsizing of the business following UK and US restrictions," Huawei said in the report filed at Companies House last month.

Anti-Huawei sentiment began in earnest stateside in 2019 when President Donald Trump declared a national emergency by signing an executive order that effectively prohibited the use of Chinese telecom gear by US corporations. Pressure was then placed on allies to follow suit. President Biden didn't loosen screws during his administration and now Trump is back.

The UK Telecommunications (Security) Act received Royal Assent in November 2021, outlawing the purchase of Huawei networking kit to build 5G networks. Local companies were ordered to eradicate any Huawei tech from their 5G infrastructure by 2027.

Huawei, which previously agreed to annual checks on its products by GCHQ, the British intelligence and security agency, has consistently denied allegations of spying for the Chinese Communist Party. Its software development practices were criticized by the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre, though backdoors in its hardware were not identified.

Nevertheless, the business that once flew high in Britain shut down its Enterprise tech operations – servers, networking, and storage – in the country and has since been reduced to servicing network products still in use and selling lines of consumer tech.

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In addition to the latest revenue drop for Huawei UK in 2024 – down 18 percent year-on-year – the profit and loss accounts confirm that gross profit fell 21.4 percent to £24.2 million ($32.7 million) due to "changes in sales mix," and profit after tax tumbled more than 26 percent to £6.2 million ($8.4 million).

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Huawei said its UK forecast for the current year was set in anticipation of risks in the telecoms sectors and "challenging" economic conditions, as well as "restrictions placed on the business by US and UK legislation and regulations."

The Reg attended a Huawei event on London during July and was shown a range of new consumer tech gear including a foldable smartphone and other interesting gadgets. None were available for sale locally, though staff hinted this could change. Huawei continues to sell wearables, PCs, tablets and audio products to Brits.

Huawei employed just 176 people in the UK in 2024, versus 260 in the prior year. Back in 2019, it had 885 on the payroll in Britain. This is what happens when technology and politics are intertwined.

Steve Brazier, Informa Fellow and co-founder at Canappi, told us:

"Following the UK government's decision to restrict Huawei's market access on political grounds, the company's reduced presence in Britain has contributed to delays in 5G infrastructure deployment and limitations in network performance. Whilst the full economic cost of these delays—in terms of reduced productivity and missed innovation opportunities remains difficult to quantify, the impact has been considerable.

"Despite these setbacks in the UK market, Huawei has demonstrated remarkable resilience globally, re-establishing itself as a major force across telecommunications infrastructure, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things solutions, mobile devices, and semiconductor technology. It is one of the world's most important tech companies."

Huawei's business globally grew 22 percent year-on-year in 2024 as it concentrates on Asia Pacific and other regions outside of the West.

We asked Huawei to comment. ®