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By Joyce Lee and Supantha Mukherjee
STOCKHOLM/SEOUL, June 14 (Reuters) - British telecoms group
Vodafone has chosen Samsung Electronics to
supply its 5G network equipment in Britain, the pair said on
Monday, a breakthrough for the South Korean company in Europe's
telecoms gear market.
European mobile operators are increasingly considering
Samsung to replace China's Huawei as a supplier, with
executives from Spain's Telefonica and France's Orange
previously telling Reuters they had held talks with
the firm.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Britain
has already ordered all Huawei equipment to be removed from its
5G network by the end of 2027, echoing a U.S. campaign against
Huawei, citing national security risks.
Samsung is banking on Europe to maintain growth in its
network equipment business, a senior executive told Reuters
earlier this month, as 5G rollouts widen.
"It still has a long way to go to catch Ericsson and Nokia,
but Samsung has a well-rounded 5G RAN portfolio across mobile
broadband, fixed wireless access and private 5G networks, so it
should be seen as a genuine contender," said CCS Insight analyst
Richard Webb.
The European telecoms equipment market is dominated by Nokia
, Ericsson and Huawei, but Samsung has
entered the picture after it unexpectedly landed a $6 billion
deal with U.S. giant Verizon in September.
Several telecom operators are also warming to a new approach
to wireless network architecture called Open RAN, which allows
mobile operators to mix and match equipment from various
suppliers, potentially improving flexibility and reducing costs.
While companies such as Japan's Rakuten and Dish
Network have been at the forefront of using open
networks, older telecom firms like Telefonica and Vodafone are
now also emerging as proponents of the new technology.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Supantha Mukherjee; Editing by
Louise Heavens, Kenneth Maxwell and Jan Harvey)
