Telecom engineers in the UK have begun the massive $700 million, seven-year task of ripping down all Huawei telecom equipment, following a government directive.

Hull is the first British city where Huawei will be eradicated from the BT Group’s network, the UK’s biggest.

BT said it’s on track to cut out all of Huawei’s equipment there by July, substituting it with components from Nokia and Ericsson.

Nation-wide, engineers will have to repeat this surgery on 12,000 of BT’s 18,000 mobile masts, rooftops, and other sites.

The removal of Huawei gear is estimated to delay Britain’s 5G rollout by up to three years and cost the industry £2 billion overall.