Nokia says it has now received more 5G orders than Huawei

Nokia claims that it has now received more orders for 5G equipment than its Chinese competitor Huawei. The company has seen a growing interest in its products over the past few weeks, says Managing Director Federico Guillen.

Nokia now has 42 commercial 5G orders, says Guillen versus Reuters. Huawei has had cute forty orders, and the Swedish competitor Ericsson has announced nineteen contracts. Eight of those contracts are already live. With these figures, Nokia is now leading the way when it comes to 5G orders.

According to Guillen, customers are increasingly looking to Nokia to equip their next-generation core networks. This is either to replace existing providers or to have multiple providers for the sensitive parts of the network. “It’s a little early to quantify, but in recent weeks that’s what we see happening.”

Nokia has also announced with whom it has concluded 22 of the deals. This concerns customers such as T-Mobile, Telia and Softbank. Since the end of March, 12 new 5G orders have been received.

Tensions Huawei

Nokia’s success is due in part to the tensions surrounding Chinese network equipment suppliers, such as Huawei. Guillen says that there has been a lot of interest from European countries debating the role of Chinese suppliers in their network. “We’re beginning to see traction in countries where there are debates.”

Huawei and other Chinese manufacturers are under attack. The United States and several Western countries are afraid that equipment from the companies will be misused by the Chinese government for espionage. In the US, this has already led to Huawei being blacklisted, preventing it from buying American-made services and parts.

In the Netherlands, a task force has been set up by the NCTV to investigate 5G risks. The AIVD would also investigate Huawei’s espionage here.