BT has failed to fully hit an end-of-year government deadline for removing telecoms equipment supplied by Huawei after delays in migrating its 2G and 3G services, as providers race to strip the kit from their networks due to security concerns.

UK telecom operators were required to rip out Huawei equipment from their core infrastructure — in effect, the central parts of the network — by December 31 as part of a wider ban on kit from the Chinese vendor over national security concerns.

BT has now removed almost all of the telecoms infrastructure supplied by Huawei but is yet to finish the process. Other groups have also been racing to hit the deadline, although government officials said they would be given some leeway, given the difficulties in taking out essential parts of a network while still running services.