[i.h]

Deploying new/upgrading masts and Re-farming 3G spectrum is not without costs, nor is removing Huawei equipment.

With modern software defined radios, probably not huge. Maybe some licensing costs. Huawei is not a significant factor - the ban applies to 5G only (what little of it was out there at the time of the ban coming in) and natural equipment refresh cycles would take care of it before the cutoff in 2027. Again, fixed line is where the bigger issues lie as so much of Openreach's FTTC/FTTP is Huawei based. There is no actual ban there, just natural wastage as people move across.

Certainly not as large as building an entirely new fixed line network almost from scratch (don't even get the benefit of the ducts/poles in areas where they either don't exist, or need replacement or remedial works).

While Openreach make a lot of noise about how aggressive and fast paced their FTTP rollout is, you don't see the same from EE.

Anyway - this is getting off topic and the point still stands - 5G has lost a lot of its hype and network operators that own both are no longer prioritising it as much as they did. EE, O2 and Vodafone all try to sell fixed line products first.