Nokia is in advanced talks to sign a contract with Portuguese telecoms operator MEO to supply 5G radio equipment, Reuters news report said.
China’s Huawei has supplied 2G, 3G and 4G Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment to MEO. The development indicates that Nokia is making inroads to a telecom equipment market dominated by Huawei.
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 been supplied in RAN only by Huawei. In other words, Huawei has had a 100 percent market share in 2G/3G/4G. We have now been selected to replace Huawei in some of the key markets in Portugal,” Tommi Uitto, president of Nokia’s mobile networks, wrote in an internal blog.
The deal would mark Nokia’s return to Portugal’s RAN market after it lost market share there to Huawei many years ago and has not supplied any communications service providers with RAN in the country since then, Tommi Uitto wrote in the internal blog seen by Reuters.
