Greenland telecom network chose Swedish Ericsson to supply 5G equipments

Greenland has picked Sweden’s Ericsson over China’s Huawei to supply equipment for its fifth-generation (5G) telecoms network, state telecoms operator Tele Greenland announced on 19th December 2019.

“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,” Chief Executive Kristian Reinert Davidsen told broadcaster KNR.

Tele Greenland’s decision had been made after considering issues like “quality, price and security in the broadest sense.”

“It’s hard to say which network is best,” Mr. 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.”

His comments were confirmed to Reuters by a Tele Greenland spokeswoman.

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.

Ericsson, which last week was picked by Norway’s Telenor as key technology provider of the country’s 5G network, also supplied Greenland’s 4G network. A spokeswoman for the Swedish company Ericsson declined to comment on future plans for 5G rollout in Greenland, but 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 also 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.