Nokia is taking advantage of Huawei’s difficulties to catch up with its Chinese rivals on the global 5G race. CEO Rajeev Suri said that this was the time for Nokia to shine.
On June 4, Finnish telecommunications equipment maker said it had signed 42 commercial 5G contracts worldwide. Thus, Nokia is on par with Huawei in terms of number of contracts.
Huawei is the No. 1 telecom equipment manufacturer in the market but has recently been largely affected by the US ban. The United States put pressure on its allies to ban or restrict Huawei devices from the 5G network due to national security concerns. Huawei repeatedly denied this allegation.
On the same day, Huawei confirmed to have signed 42 5G contracts, including 25 in Europe, 10 in the Middle East and 6 in Asia. However, Nokia is growing rapidly. The company said that since March, every week they had a new transaction. At the end of March, Huawei announced that there were 40 contracts, Nokia had 30. Thus, within the past two months, Nokia has signed 12 new contracts and Huawei has only 2.
According to experts, Huawei’s 5G growth is in trouble but still maintains momentum. Recently, they signed a memorandum of understanding with the African Union on the deployment of 5G network.
The latest ban from Washington prohibits US companies from selling important parts and components to Huawei, meaning that Huawei cannot buy US hardware and software without a special license.
Not only the US company stopped buying and selling with Huawei, some companies in the UK and Japan also delayed the release of their smartphones. Huawei’s telecommunications equipment faces a number of new challenges when SoftBank chose Nokia and Ericsson for the 5G network, eliminating Huawei despite both long-term partners.
The next 5G network will be available in everything from self-driving cars to smart speakers. The US government does not want the 5G network built by Huawei. For a long time, Washington accused Beijing of using Huawei devices to spy on other countries. Huawei insists that it has never received such a request.
Nokia and Ericsson are the two main competitors of Huawei in the market of telecommunications equipment supply. They benefit most when Huawei has trouble. It seems that Nokia is ready to take the throne from Huawei.
