Telenor chose Ericsson for 5G supplier and continues cooperation with Huawei

Norway’s largest mobile operator Telenor announced at a press conference in Oslo, they would continue working with Chinese company Huawei, while adding Sweden’s Ericsson for its fifth-generation (5G) telecoms network as its new supplier on 13th December 2019.

Telenor’s top management said that Ericsson is their new 5G supplier. The reason for the cooperation with both Huawei and Ericsson is a growing customer appetite for data capacity. Regarding their next progress, the company’s network is to modernize in the next four or five years, and Huawei will be involved the entire process.

Anders Krokan, communications director of Telenor Norway said:

“In order to ensure that our customers in the transition phase continue to receive a world-class mobile network, Telenor will use equipment from current supplier, Huawei, in the radio network to maintain the 4G network as well as to upgrade 5G coverage in certain locations in Norway,”.

During the press conference, Telenor management was asked to confirm if they will install Huawei 5G equipment in the Norwegian network.

“To meet customer needs, the answer is yes. Given that this process takes four to five years, we need to make sure all our customers have a good experience,” said Petter-Borre Furberg, CEO of Telenor Norway.

“Specifically, we have demanded that suppliers from countries with whom we do not cooperate in security policy cannot account for more than 50 percent of the base stations,” the country’s Digitization Minister Nikolai Astrup said.

“If companies choose suppliers from countries we do not have security policy cooperation with, the requirement was that two or more suppliers had to be selected,” he noted.

Telenor has been working with Huawei for 10 years. Currently, the Telenor Group is testing 5G in 10 locations in Norway as well as selected areas in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Thailand and Malaysia.