State telecoms operator Tele Greenland has selected Sweden’s Ericsson over China’s Huawei and Finland’s Nokia to supply equipment for its 5G mobile network.
The decision comes as United States is pushing allies to exclude Huawei from 5G deals, and after President Donald Trump in August offered to buy Greenland from Denmark as part of a broader strategic push into the Arctic, Reuters reported.
“5G is coming to Greenland, but no date has been set for this yet. We do not see Huawei as a possible supplier of Tele Greenland’s 5G network,” Tele Greenland CEO Kristian Reinert Davidsen told broadcaster KNR.
A Huawei spokeswoman in Denmark said the company was not aware of any plans for 5G rollout in Greenland.
“Huawei has no mobile network business in Greenland and had no plans to participate in any 5G rollout in Greenland,” she said.
Tele Greenland selected Ericsson after considering issues like quality, price and security in the broadest sense, the company’s chairman Stine Bosse told Reuters.
Ericsson, which last week was picked by Norway’s Telenor as key technology provider of the country’s 5G network, also supplied Tele Greenland’s 4G network.
“It’s hard to say which network is best,” Davidsen told KNR. “We just found that Ericsson was the right choice for us based on all the parameters. It was from an overall point of view, and I can’t say if one is safer than the other.”
A spokeswoman for the Swedish company said Tele Greenland is an important customer and that its current 4G network in Greenland is based upon Ericsson’s 5G ready products.
Earlier this year, privately held Danish telecoms operator TDC picked Ericsson over Huawei for its 5G network. TDC said it was a commercial decision, but that it was not blind to widespread concerns about Huawei and information security.
