LONDON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Vodafone said that stopping it from using Huawei equipment will not only cost the mobile operator a lot of money but also delay its deployment of 5G in Britain, BBC reported on Thursday.

A ban would require Vodafone to strip Huawei equipment out of its existing 4G network, and the cost of doing that "runs into the hundreds of millions and will dramatically affect our 5G business case", BBC quoted Scott Petty, Vodafone's chief technology officer, as saying.

"We would have to slow down the deployment of 5G very significantly," said Petty.

Huawei radio equipment was used in nearly a third of Vodafone's 18,000 base stations in Britain, according to Petty. Vodafone will launch 5G in 19 towns and cities across Britain during 2019.

Petty also said that Britain was a leader in 5G readiness and would fall behind if Huawei was banned.

There was no evidence that Huawei's equipment posed a security threat, said Vodafone's general counsel, Helen Lamprell, who was also quoted by the BBC.