Huawei ban would be costly

Article Excerpt

BCE INC. $58.42 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 898.0 million; Market cap: $52.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.2%; www.bce.ca) and TELUS $47.93 (Toronto symbol T; Shares o/s: 598.7 million; Market cap: $28.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.6%; www.telus.com) have both used equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. in their wireless networks. Canada continues to grapple with fallout from its arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Moreover, it must decide whether to ban the tech giant’s 5G equipment over fears it poses security risks because of the company’s close ties to the Chinese government. Banning Huawei would likely boost costs for BCE and Telus—as it has for telecom providers in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. Those “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing partners have already blocked 5G products from low-bidder Huawei. Both BCE and Telus are still in the early stages of their own 5G rollout. If they are forced to use alternative equipment from suppliers like Sweden’s Ericsson or Finland’s Nokia, their overall…