Telecom Italia to retain Nokia as a supplier, Huawei’s share decreases

According to three people familiar with the matter, Telecom Italia has decided to still use Finland’s Nokia as its supplier of 5G network construction and reduce Huawei’s tools procurement share.

Formerly, the United States had lobbied Italy and other European allies to avoid using Huawei’s devices, saying it might pose a security risk. So far, Italy has refused to completely ban Huawei devices.

People familiar with the matter said that at the beginning of this year, Telecom Italia considered splitting the radio access network (RAN) supply contract between Huawei and Sweden’s Ericsson as part of its 5G expansion. The RAN infrastructure includes base stations and antennas that connect smartphones to the mobile network, accounting for most of the cost of the new network.

According to people familiar with the matter, Nokia has always been one of Telecom Italia’s mobile radio access network equipment suppliers, but it was excluded from the 5G RAN order at the beginning of the year.

But since then, the agreement has been re-examined. A person familiar with the matter said: ‘Ericsson will be responsible for providing most of the machine, while Huawei and Nokia will each supply 20% to 25% of the equipment.’

Huawei, Telecom Italia, Nokia, and Ericsson all declined to comment. Even in countries where Chinese companies are not banned, telecom operators are cautious about choosing to use Huawei equipment.

According to Government and industry sources, Italy actually responded to pressure from the United States when reviewing 5G transactions and urged companies to diversify 5G suppliers.

In July of this year, Telecom Italia excluded Huawei from the contract bidding for the provision of 5G equipment for its core network, which is responsible for processing sensitive data.

(Via)