Work · TPM
Huawei out of the Core
A high-risk vendor removal in the most consequential part of the network, under government scrutiny, that nobody else would take on. I found a way to meet the mandate that also removed £3.6M a year of third-party cost.
- Result
- £3.6M of the £6M
- Role
- Technical Programme Manager, Vodafone (via Interactive Management Solutions)
- When
- 2019–present
Why nobody wanted it
After US government advice against Huawei equipment in core networks, Vodafone needed high-risk vendor equipment removed from its core. The programme was unowned, for two sound reasons:
- Outage risk. The core is the highest-consequence part of the network. The downside of touching live core links is a national service failure.
- Government involvement. The work was carried out under government direction: outside scrutiny, fixed expectations, and no room to fail quietly.
Why I took it
It wasn’t bravery. I already had a method for exactly this kind of risk from the third-party link programme: never decommission on a single source of truth. Every change was verified against traffic monitoring, inventory records and the service owner, with a rollback plan for each one. What looked reckless from outside was a calculated call.
The move that paid for itself
The obvious reading of a vendor-removal mandate is pure cost: take equipment out, put equivalent equipment back, pay for both.
The Huawei core links ran over third-party dark fibre on a £3.6M annual renewal. Instead of moving them onto new leased capacity, the traffic went onto Vodafone’s own Ciena network and the dark-fibre contract was not renewed. The compliance requirement was met, and a recurring third-party cost disappeared, because the new home was infrastructure Vodafone already owned.
Result
- £3.6M a year of recurring operating cost removed. This is part of the over £6M third-party programme total, not in addition to it.
- High-risk vendor equipment removed from the core.
Programme-level detail such as sites, architecture and timelines is deliberately left out. I’m happy to talk about how the programme was run.
The mandate was a cost. I found the version of compliance that paid for itself.