The UK’s largest telco BT will use Nokia’s equipment to replace those of Huawei.
The Finnish telecom equipment giant will now become the largest supplier of equipment to the telco, replacing its Chinese rival.
BT currently uses Huawei and Nokia’s equipment at around a two to one ratio.
Nokia last month announced that it has signed an equipment supply deal with the UK telco, including those for 5G network.
Samsung Electronics lack behind in 2G and 3G technology compared to rivals as it started to gain notice since 4G, a person familiar with the matter said, which makes it lack behind rivals Nokia and Ericsson of Sweden as an alternative to Huawei in the UK.
In July, Samsung Network has told the UK’s House of Commons that the company plans to invest more in 4G, 5G and 6G. The company said it can realize Open RAN to apply 2G and 3G technologies of mid-sized companies to its solutions.
Nokia, which was considered to have lacked behind in 5G to rivals, will now get a chance for a turnaround with its deal with BT.
The company offered a software update for South Korean telcos earlier this year to have its equipment offer E-UTRA NR dual connectivity (EN-DC) speed that matches those of its competitors.
South Korea has rolled out 5G non-standalone networks in South Korea. EN-DC technology combines 5G and 4G networks to increase data transfer speed.
Last week, Nokia said it has secured 17 new contracts for 5G equipment in the third quarter of 2020. It has accumulated over 100 5G contracts so far, the company said.
Ericsson has said it has marked 100 contracts for 5G back in early August.
Huawei and Samsung has not revealed how many 5G contracts they have secured so far.
According to Dell’Oro Group, Huawei had a 35.7% market share in 5G equipment in the first quarter, followed by Ericsson’s 24.6%, Nokia’s 15.8% and Samsung’s 13.2%.
