France’s largest telecom Orange Group has chosen Nokia and Ericsson as long-term industrial partners for the deployment of 5G across the country.
The agreement includes antennas and associated professional services for the deployment of next-generation cellular technology over the next five years.
The partnership with Ericsson is focused on the Île-de-France, northeast and southwest regions, zones where Ericsson already supplies 2G/3G/4G on the mobile network (RAN). Nokia is focused on the west and southeast regions of France, zones where Nokia already supplies 2G/3G/4G on the mobile network (RAN).
Orange said the deployment of 5G technology is one of the main priorities of the company’s Engage 2025 strategic plan. Deployment will begin as soon as possible and will be ready to launch 5G services when the frequencies are made available during 2020.
Europe has been deciding what to do with its 5G infrastructure since the U.S. signed an executive order declaring a national emergency against threats to American technology, adding Huawei and its affiliates to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List. The U.S. warned its allies to follow its lead in blacklisting Huawei over fears the Chinese government would use the technology to spy on consumers and security interests.
While some countries such as New Zealand and Australia followed the U.S.’s recommendations, European countries have been reviewing whether or not to use Huawei’s equipment. Recently, the U.K. government agreed to allow “high risk” vendors into non-critical areas of 5G infrastructure and Germany said it would not rule out using the Chinese equipment vendor last year.
