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* Nokia wins 5G contracts with Orange Belgium, Proximus
* Huawei says outcome the result of a free market
* Nokia shares up 3%
(Adds comments from Nokia, analyst, detail)
By Supantha Mukherjee and Mathieu Rosemain
STOCKHOLM/PARIS, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Orange and
Proximus have picked Nokia to help build 5G
networks in Belgium as they drop Huawei amid U.S. pressure to
exclude the Chinese firm from supplying key telecoms equipment.
The moves are among the first by commercial operators in
Europe to drop Huawei from next-generation networks and come
after months of diplomatic pressure from Washington, which
alleges Huawei equipment could be used by Beijing for spying.
The Belgian capital Brussels is home to the European Union's
executive body and parliament, making it a matter of particular
concern for U.S. intelligence agencies.
"Belgium has been 100% reliant on Chinese vendors for its
radio networks - and people working at NATO and the EU were
making mobile phone calls on these networks," said John Strand,
an independent Danish telecoms consultant.
"The operators are sending a signal that it's important to
have access to safe networks."
Huawei, the world's biggest telecoms equipment
supplier, strongly denies the U.S. allegations and has been
highly critical of calls to ban it from 5G contracts.
However, the company said on Friday it accepted the
decisions by Orange Belgium and Proximus, which confirm a
Reuters report.
"This is the outcome of a tender organised by operators and
the result of the free market," a Huawei spokesman said.
"We embrace fair competition, the more diversified a supply
chain the more competitive it becomes," he said, adding Huawei
had been supplying equipment in Belgium for more than a decade
and its commitment remained unchanged.
The deals to supply radio gear to Orange Belgium and
Proximus are a boost for Nokia, which struggled to make headway
in the 5G market earlier this year even as Huawei was under
pressure.
"I have tried to become RAN (radio access network) supplier
to Orange Belgium since 2003 when the company was still
Mobistar. Here we are, finally," tweeted Tommi Uitto, president
of Nokia Mobile Networks.
The companies did not disclose a value for the contracts.
Nokia shares were up nearly 3% in early trading.
Orange Belgium and Proximus said Ericsson would
supply the core of their 5G networks, a smaller slice of
business.
EU members have been stepping up scrutiny of so-called
high-risk vendors. This subjects Huawei's governance and
technology to critical examination and is likely to lead other
European operators to strip it from their networks, analysts
say.
Nokia and Ericsson have been the main beneficiaries of the
challenges facing Huawei. From Bell Canada and Telus
Corp in Canada to BT in Britain, the Nordic
companies have been grabbing market share from the Chinese firm.
Separately, Nokia said it had won a contract to provide data
management software to Telefonica UK, replacing an unidentified
existing vendor.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm, Mathieu Rosemain
in Paris and Douglas Busvine in Berlin, additional reporting by
Sudip Kar-Gupta and Benoit Van Overstraeten; editing by Jason
Neely and Mark Potter)
