STOCKHOLM/HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia said on Tuesday mobile operator Proximus Luxembourg has selected the Finnish telecom network equipment company for a seven-year deal to supply 5G coverage nationwide.
Nokia is replacing China’s Huawei, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Nokia had in October won contracts from Orange and Proximus to build 5G radio networks in Belgium after they dropped Huawei amid U.S. pressure to exclude the Chinese firm from supplying key telecoms equipment.
Ericsson and Nokia have been beneficiaries of the trend by various governments to restrict Chinese companies from taking part in the deployment of 5G due to national security concerns.
In Luxembourg Nokia will replace the incumbent spectrum vendor in the deal, with deployment expected to start next year. It did not name the incumbent.
Proximus Luxembourg has spectrum in the 700Mhz band for low-latency communication and the 3.5Ghz band for dense urban coverage.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, editing by Louise Heavens)
