Embattled Chinese tech bogeyman Huawei has decried the UK government's mooted plan to ban it from domestic 5G networks over reliability concerns caused by the imposition of punishing US sanctions .

In a press conference this morning, Huawei veep Victor Zhang — who has represented the company's UK interests in various forms since 2004 — said it was too early to determine whether the Trump Administration's sanctions have impacted its ability to deliver.

"It is important to stress that the restrictions by the US will take months to fully understand. The fact is, it is too early to assess their

Britain is all a-tizzy about Huawei again as talk swirls over the imminent release of an unofficial report into the Chinese company’s influence over prominent Britons and a ban on its telco equipment.

The volume of industry chatter was turned up to 11 this week after newspaper reports that a controversial former MI6 spy had written an 86-page dossier titled "China's Elite Capture" which claimed China uses Huawei as a "strategic asset" to lean on leading "establishment" figures and convince them to take a more pro-China line in domestic politics.

The Daily Mail reported at length the claims of former

After months of dilly dallying, the UK government has said it will finally decide this month whether Huawei should be booted out of Blighty’s nascent 5G network, according to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.

Speaking on London talk radio station LBC Radio this morning, Dowden raised the possibility that crippling US sanctions have undermined its reliability as a vendor.

“In relation to Huawei, we’ve had these US sanctions that were imposed a couple of months ago. I’ve asked the National Cyber Security Centre to analyse the impact of them,” he said.

“It seems likely they’re going to have a significant impact

Analogue radio station licences will be extended for another 10 years, the UK government has said – entirely reversing plans to shut off FM and AM radio stations in favour of DAB digital radio.

Commercial radio stations will be allowed to renew their existing, close-to-expiry licences for another decade, meaning your old banger's tape deck-cum-stereo will keep working until at least 2032.

The U-turn "ensures there is no disruption for loyal listeners of treasured FM and AM radio services such as Classic FM, Absolute Radio and TalkSport over the next decade," boasted media minister John Whittingdale, a one-time Minister of

Vodafone has switched on its first 5G SA (standalone) network in the UK.

The inaugural deployment is located at Coventry University, and - all being well - is expected to deliver increased capacity as well as the low-latency connections required for time-sensitive IoT applications.

Coventry University said it will use the network to trial virtual-reality learning technologies for student nurses, as well as to help it specialise in 5G-related research.

Vodafone has also pushed out Ericsson's 5G Radio Dot System at the Midlands university, providing indoor 5G access in key buildings.

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Con Latham CBE, Coventry University vice chancellor,