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The firm, which has always denied connections with the state and any espionage risks, has been dragged into a trade war between the US and China, with American officials trying to persuade allies to block the tech company from rollouts of next-generation mobile networks.

Australia, New Zealand and Japan have all followed the US in imposing bans against Huawei in recent months, and concerns have been raised by authorities in European countries including the UK, Germany and France.

Fully replacing Huawei parts in the core part of the network will take up to four years, with BT footing the bill. A government spokesman told the London Telegraph – which first reported the ESN action – that while Huawei parts would be removed, it was content the emergency systems infrastructure does not pose a security concern.

"We have ongoing plans to swap to a new core network vendor for Emergency Services Network, in line with BT's network architecture principles established in 2006," an EE spokesperson said in emailed comments. "This will be managed with no disruption to the ESN service."