Huawei has been shut out of some high-profile 5G contracts, as both Deutsche Telekom and Bell Canada have gone with Ericsson.
Huawei has faced increasing pressure worldwide as the US has led a campaign to shut the Chinese firm out of the 5G market. Huawei is already banned in the US, and officials have been working to get their allies to follow suit.
Australia and New Zealand have similarly banned Huawei from participation in their 5G networks. The UK initially decided to allow the company to participate in a limited role, although recent events are forcing the British government to reconsider. Canada, on the other hand, has remained largely undecided.
Bell Canada, however, has decided to exclude Huawei, inking a deal with Ericsson instead.
“Ericsson plays an important role in enabling Bell’s award-winning LTE network and we’re pleased to grow our partnership into 5G mobile and fixed wireless technology,” said Stephen Howe, Chief Technology Officer, Bell Canada. “5G’s high-capacity and near-instant connections will enable next-generation applications like mobile 4K video and immersive augmented reality, connected vehicles and industrial IoT automation on a massive scale, and our plan is to deliver the benefits of the 5G wireless revolution to cities and rural locations alike.”
Similarly, Deutsche Telekom has also selected Ericsson for its network in Germany.
“We listened to Deutsche Telekom and understood their urgency to have 5G-ready infrastructure in order to stay at the forefront of customer service in Germany,” said Arun Bansal, President and Head of Ericsson in Europe and Latin America. “We can run multiple standards on the same baseband hardware and a 5G upgrade will be able to be performed by a simple software download to the radio sites. And, during these deliveries, we will use the experience from our 5G activities around the world to be sure that Deutsche Telekom has the most advanced hardware and software in the industry.”
These are undoubtedly big losses for Huawei and further isolates the company in its efforts to be a leader in the 5G market.