London | Britain has become among the first countries to plot a path out of dependency on Chinese telco giant Huawei for its 5G mobile network, cutting a deal with Japanese company NEC and vowing to nurture new players to rival Nokia and Ericsson.

As it moves to ban Huawei, the British government will pump £1.6 million ($2.9 million) into local trials of NEC's effort to develop an "Open RAN" – a neutral 5G platform that can interchangeably use different companies' equipment.