Nokia appears to be capitalising on Huawei’s struggles and has benefited from increased 5G equipment orders in recent weeks.
The Finnish vendor has landed 42 commercial 5G orders which puts it ahead of rivals Huawei and Ericsson.
Huawei isn’t far behind with around 40 commercial 5G orders. Ericsson is trailing with 19, but eight of the vendor’s clients have 5G networks already live.
According to Nokia director Federico Guillen, interest has grown from operators in countries debating the use of Chinese equipment following US-led security concerns.
“It’s a little early to quantify that, but in recent weeks we are starting to see that happening,” Guillen told Reuters. “Where we are starting to see traction is in countries where there are debates.”
Nokia says it’s won 12 new 5G contracts since late March. Around 22 of the vendor’s deals are with named customers like T-Mobile, SoftBank, and Telia. As Telecoms reported last month, both Nokia and Ericsson won 5G contracts with SoftBank.
Ericsson is providing RAN (Radio Access Network) equipment to SoftBank for 5G bands in the mid and high frequencies, while Nokia is deploying its AirScale solution in both distributed and centralised RAN configurations to help SoftBank meet growing consumer and industrial demands for 5G.
Speaking during Nokia’s annual general meeting last month, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri claimed his company is benefiting through offering “wider portfolio elements that our competitors cannot match.”
Following poor Q1 2019 financial results, some analysts claimed Nokia was failing to capitalise on Huawei’s woes. We have a feeling Nokia’s next results could look a bit healthier following these latest 5G deals.
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