Rogers Communications Inc. says it will be ready to deploy next-generation 5G wireless networks on schedule despite the Trump administration’s ban on U.S. sales to Chinese equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co.

Eric Bruno, Rogers senior vice-president of 5G, content and connected home products, said the company has a 30-year supply relationship with Stockholm-based gear maker Ericsson and uses only “a little bit of (Huawei) equipment at the edge of the network.”

He said Rogers is setting up its transmission infrastructure in preparation for 5G, adding that “we’re very happy we’ve been partnering with Ericsson.”

Rogers expects to begin employee and commercial trials of 5G this year, Bruno said, with full-fledged deployment with specialized handsets from hardware makers including Samsung starting in 2020.

Bell and Telus, meanwhile, have worked with Huawei to provide equipment for 5G and legacy networks in Canada, according to telecom industry consultant Eamon Hoey, who said they likely chose Huawei gear because it is up to 40 per cent less expensive than rival offerings.

Bell CEO George Cope told investors late last year that any Canadian ban on Huawei equipment would not throttle its 5G rollout schedule, suggesting that Bell can move to another supplier if necessary.

A spokesperson for Bell said the company is “working with the federal government to determine the best approach to implementing Huawei equipment,” but did not say whether the Trump administration’s ban would cause delays.

A Telus spokesperson said the telco has reached out to Google Canada and Huawei Canada “to understand the full implications of these developments,” adding that Telus will notify customers who use Huawei devices once they know more.

In the U.S., the Trump administration insists the sanctions are unrelated to its escalating trade war with China, and many analysts see it as aimed at pressuring U.S. allies in Europe to accede to Washington’s entreaties to exclude Huawei equipment from their 5G networks.

But Trump’s move to put the company on an export blacklist threatens to shake the entire telecom industry. The U.S. move threatens to cut off the world’s largest provider of networking gear and No. 2 smartphone vendor from the U.S. software and semiconductors it needs to make its products.

It couldn’t come at a worse time for phone carriers, which are preparing the shift to fifth-generation networks that promise to lay the foundation for future technologies from autonomous cars to smart cities.

The new sanctions have inflamed the dilemma faced by phone companies: whether to stick with Huawei through the growing storm, or bite the bullet and abandon it in favour of other vendors like Nokia, Ericsson or Samsung.

Ditching the Chinese company and switching to these firms could mean ripping out the Huawei-built 4G foundations they’d planned to bolt its 5G radios onto, a move that they say would cost billions as well as choke competition and innovation in the market.

That would be “almost impossible,” said Reza Hagel, managing director at telecom procurement consultancy FOCUS. “It’s like setting off a bomb under a building and then rebuilding it.”

Huawei has won about a third of Europe’s network equipment market. Throwing out all Huawei infrastructure is a nuclear option that would cost the industry billions, according to Deutsche Telekom AG, as well as incur delays to 5G as long as 18 months, said Three U.K.’s CEO David Dyson.

Complicating the issue even further, a number of handset makers have begun launching 5G phones. If carriers are forced to ditch Huawei entirely, then having a decent 5G network to service these handsets will be delayed considerably.

Even if the networks withstand the infrastructural earthquake, Huawei is still one of the only manufacturers to have 5G-capable smartphones ready for consumers, but they’re reliant on Google’s Android and most aren’t on sale yet.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Under Trump’s export ban the Alphabet Inc. unit isn’t allowed to give Huawei access to the most popular version of its mobile operating system, This leaves the Chinese company with a choice as potentially costly as those felt by networks: ship its phones with software mainstream consumers don’t want, or just don’t ship them at all.

The latter option would benefit Korean rival Samsung, which has a 5G version of its popular Galaxy line ready to go. Huawei may decide to use an open-source version of Android that doesn’t require Google’s blessing to use, or even build its own, but this will lack key features that drive sales, such as the Google Play app store, Gmail and YouTube.

Users who’ve already bought one of Huawei’s existing phones shouldn’t be affected, as Google can keep pushing security updates for now. But as none of those models contain 5G technology, it won’t help Huawei capitalize on any next-generation mobile networks it’s helped build.