STOCKHOLM: Nokia won its first 5G radio deal in China on Monday, obtaining a piece of one of China Mobile’s three new 5G contracts, while Nordic rival Ericsson lost market share due to a political squabble. Chinese enterprises, as is common, took the lion’s part of the order. According to a document published by China Mobile at https://b2b.10086.cn/b2b/main/viewNoticeContent.html?noticeBean.id=773468, Huawei took a dominant share in all three contracts, followed by ZTE.
After Sweden decided to prohibit Chinese manufacturers from its own networks, Ericsson was likely to receive a smaller portion of China’s 5G rollout.
Nokia received a 10% stake in one of the three contracts, while Ericsson received 9.6% of another. Nokia did not win any 5G radio contracts in China last year.
The winners of the second phase of the 5G contracts will be announced soon by China’s other two main telecom providers, China Telecom and China Unicom.
(Kirsten Donovan edited Supantha Mukherjee’s reporting; Supantha Mukherjee is a European Technology & Telecoms Correspondent located in Stockholm.)/n
