Nokia Hit “100” 5G Deals with 17 new agreements
Finnish vendor Nokia announced that it has signed 17 new 5G commercial agreements in the 3rd Qtr of 2020, just eleven short of Ericsson’s total of 111 5G deals. The vendor achieved 100 5G commercial agreements with its already contracted customers and a total of 160 5G commercial engagements, including both signed contracts (deals) and paid trial. Both suppliers have shared details on their websites to track their 5G deal wins.
The new agreements has enabled Nokia to make its presence in “all 5G early adopter markets”, hitting deals with the top four U.S. carriers and the top three in both Japan and Korea. As of today, Nokia has 35 live networks. Some of its key customers include AT&T, Bell Canada, Sprint, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, SoftBank T-Mobile US, US Cellular, Verizon, Swisscom, TDC, Telenor, Vodafone UK, O2 Germany, O2 UK, Wind, Etisalat, Optus, Orange France, Ooredoo, STC, KT, SK Telecom, Telia Company, Vodafone Italy, Telus and Telstra.
At the end of last month, Nokia announced a 5G agreement with U.K. carrier BT and became their largest equipment provider.
“We are thrilled to have passed this 5G milestone,” said Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia. “We know we still have work to do and that the market remains highly competitive. But we are moving fast – and these wins make it clear that our progress is being validated by customers. We deeply appreciate their ongoing support and are committed to delivering for them.”
The company said in a statement that its 5G portfolio is already gathering interest among enterprises. Enterprise customer now represent 12% of the 5G deals with Nokia, including Deutsche Bahn, Toyota’s production Engineering and Sandvik, with the latest Private Wireless deployments.
Nokia said it sees more growth in the enterprise segment and noted that it has 180 private wireless customers, all of which are expected to shift on 5G.
11 months ago, Nokia made similar kind of announcement after hitting 50 5G wins. Ericsson at that time was on 76. Ericsson on the other hand is sitting comfortably on top with total of 111 commercial 5G agreements or contracts with unique operators. This includes 65 live 5G networks.
Some of Ericsson’s key customers include AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile US, US Cellular, Verizon, Bell Canada, Telus, Rogers, Swisscom, TDC, Telenor, Vodafone UK, Wind, Deutsche Telkom, O2 UK, Etisalat, Optus, Ooredoo, Orange France, Vodafone UK, STC, KT, SK Telecom and Telstra.
Another strong contestant to both Nokia and Ericsson is Huawei who made such announcement back in February this year. Huawei at that time was leading the race with tally of 91. It has no Website equivalent to the other two and has since been silent about the 5G contract wins for some obvious reasons. However, it is safe to assume that it has already hit the 100 5G deals.