(Bloomberg) -- Canadian telecom company Telus Corp. said any decision by the national government to ban the deployment of Huawei Technologies Co. technology could make building its next-generation 5G wireless network more expensive and drag it out, though the carrier added that it hasn’t yet chosen a vendor.

A ban without compensation or other accommodations “could have a material, nonrecurring, incremental increase in the cost of Telus’s 5G network deployment and, potentially, the timing of such deployment,” the Vancouver, British Columbia-based firm said in a statement with its fourth-quarter results Thursday.

The comments from Telus, one of Canada’s top three carriers, come amid high political tensions between China and Canada on Huawei following the arrest of the Chinese tech giant’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in December. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is considering a ban on using Huawei gear in 5G networks and his government’s security review is ongoing, with no timeline set for a decision.

Telus said it expects a decision on the matter in the coming months and that it is continuing to work with the government.

‘Robust Protections’

In building its national networks, Telus said it has worked closely with the government to “ensure robust protections across all equipment used” and complied with security protocols that limit Chinese equipment to less sensitive radio and antenna portions, while banning it from core operations. Telus said it has had no security incidents in a decade of working with Huawei on 3G and 4G networks.

Telus would be the Canadian carrier most exposed to a ban on Huawei 5G technology, followed by BCE Inc., RBC Capital Markets analysts Drew McReynolds and Caleb Ho said in a note in January.

BCE said on an earnings call last week that a Canadian ban on Huawei equipment wouldn’t affect its spending plans or the timing of its 5G rollout. Rogers Communications Inc., the third major telecom company in Canada, has already decided not to use Huawei equipment in 5G.

While the elimination of a major low-cost equipment supplier could increase the risk of higher prices for Canadian telecom operators, “any such cost inflation can be mitigated by each operator altering the pace of what will be a long multiyear 5G deployment,” RBC said.

--With assistance from Yueqi Yang.

To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Wong in Toronto at nwong133@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Debarati Roy at droy5@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

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