Telefonica has decided to award part of the contract to roll out its 5G core network to China’s Huawei, according to unnamed sources cited by business daily Expansion. The operator is hoping the decision to award Huawei the first phase of the 5G network build will serve to pressure rival vendors including Ericsson, Nokia, Afirmed or Mavenir into providing more commercially aggressive offers to deploy a second core in the summer of 2020, said the sources, adding that Telefonica intends to award that contract to a different supplier so as not to depend solely on Huawei for its network equipment.
The award represents a major boost to Huawei in the wake of US moves to block the Chinese giant from doing business with US and European companies, said the report. Earlier this year Huawei Spain CEO Jin Yong confirmed that the company had signed agreements to deploy 5G networks for Telefonica, Vodafone and Orange, and that no operator had broken their relationship or adjusted the calendar of 5G pilot projects and service launches due to security concerns.
