Abhinav Parmar and Supanta Mukherjee
(Reuters) – Nokia (HE:) is set to win a contract to supply 5G radio equipment to Portuguese telecom operator MEO, according to a post on Nokia’s internal blog and two sources familiar with the matter.
Nokia intends to go ahead with the deal despite China’s Huawei being the sole supplier of 2G, 3G and 4G radio access network (RAN) equipment for MEO.
The contract has been agreed but not yet signed, and an announcement is likely to be made as early as next month, according to sources.
MEO is one of Portugal’s leading mobile operators, formerly known as Telecom Portugal and now owned by France’s Altice.
“In recent years, MEO… has only been supplied to the RAN by Huawei. In other words, Huawei had 100% market share in 2G/3G/4G networks. We have now been chosen to replace Huawei in some key areas. markets in Portugal,” wrote Tommy Uitto, president of Nokia mobile networks, in an internal blog reviewed by Reuters.
A Nokia spokesman declined to comment, as did Huawei. MEO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
RAN equipment has accounted for the majority of telecoms sales to companies such as Huawei, Nokia and its Swedish rival Ericsson (BS:), but a drop in demand for new equipment from telecoms companies since last year has hit Nokia and Ericsson, forcing them to cut thousands of RAN equipment sales . workplaces.
The global RAN market is expected to shrink 5% to 8% in 2024, according to research firm Dell (NYSE:)’Oro.
Huawei, which has been banned in the US and several European countries over security concerns, remains present in Europe and has a significant share of China’s fast-growing telecoms market.
The deal will mark Nokia’s return to the Portuguese RAN market after it lost market share there to Huawei years ago and has not supplied RAN to any telecom service provider in the country since then, Uitto wrote in an internal blog seen by Reuters.