Huawei Loses Main Singapore 5G Networks to Ericsson, Nokia
Singapore’s biggest telecom operators chose Ericsson AB and
Nokia Oyj as their main 5G network providers, leaving China’s Huawei
Technologies Co. with less significant contracts in the city state.
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. chose Ericsson while a
group that includes StarHub Ltd. opted for Nokia after the city-state gave
final approval for the rollout of nationwide 5G coverage in the country
Wednesday. Huawei, which has been a point of contention in the tensions between
the U.S. and China, still has a foothold in the market as a provider for TPG
Telecom Pte’s smaller, local network system.
The final awards were issued to Singtel and a group formed
by StarHub and M1 Ltd. after they completed regulatory processes, including
selection of preferred frequency spectrum lots and vendor partners, the
Infocomm Media Development Authority said Wednesday. Provisional awards were
made in April.
TPG Telecom Pte Ltd. is being allocated the remaining
frequency spectrum in the millimeter wave band to roll out localized 5G
networks, the authority said.
“We never explicitly excluded any vendor,” Minister for
Communications and Information S. Iswaran said in an interview with Bloomberg
Television’s Haslinda Amin on Thursday. “You have a diversity of vendors
involved in different aspects of the 5G system and that is in fact a positive
outcome from our perspective,” he said.
Ericsson, Nokia
Iswaran said Thursday the city-state has very clear security
and resilience requirements, and the choices made by the telcos took this into
account “very clearly”.
Singtel, the country’s largest telco operator, said
Wednesday it selected Ericsson “to commence a period of negotiation to provide
the 5G SA Core, RAN and mmWave network, with a view to finalising the
contractual terms as soon as practicable.”
StarHub, which received spectrum rights jointly with M1,
said the preferred 5G technology partner, subject to final contract, is Nokia
for the 5G radio access network. Nokia is also the preferred technology
supplier for StarHub’s 5G core and mmWave networks. The Singapore company is
exploring other network elements with Nokia, Huawei Technologies Co., and ZTE
Corp., it said.
TPG Telecom said it’s an active member of the Telecom Infra
Project and “will leverage the extensive OpenRAN vendor community along with
Huawei’s advanced network equipment” for the implementation of 5G services.
Singapore’s 5G Network
Singtel and the StarHub-M1 group plan to introduce a
standalone 5G network starting from January 2021. The country aims to have 5G
coverage for at least half of the nation by the end of 2022 and the entire
island by 2025. The plan sets up Singapore to join countries in the region such
as China and South Korea, which have begun to offer commercial 5G services.
The rollout is coming at a time when measures to curb the
coronavirus have forced people around the world to stay and work from home,
testing digital services and connectivity like never before. The technology is
crucial for applications from autonomous driving to remote surgery. The
announcement is also just a day after general elections were declared for July
10.
U.S., China
The Singapore telcos’ decision on providers comes amid
worsening tensions between the U.S. and China. The U.S. administration has
banned Huawei from its market for telecom equipment, as part of an effort to
curb its presence in 5G networks globally.
The Pentagon, in letters to lawmakers dated June 24, said it
put Huawei on a list of 20 companies it says are owned or controlled by China’s
military. While the move’s implications were not immediately clear, it opens
the company to potential additional U.S. sanctions.
Singapore has close economic and political ties with the
U.S. and China, and last year indicated it would let its telco companies decide
for themselves on suppliers. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said earlier this
year it hadn’t banned Huawei, but would evaluate it based on operational
requirements.
Comments
Post a Comment