Internal briefing: Telekom ranks Nokia as the worst 5G supplier

Deutsche Telekom has informed Nokia that the Finnish group can only equip part of the 5G networks in Europe if products and services improve. This is reported by the Reuters news agency, citing internal documents from Telekom management and an internal source. Because of the problems, Telekom had already excluded Nokia as a provider from all but one market.

The assessments that Telekom management wrote for internal meetings and discussions with Nokia for the period from July to November 2019 also show, according to Reuters, that Nokia was rated as the worst provider in 5G tests and deployments. But Telekom is under pressure if the federal government decides on a similar regulation as in Great Britain and limits the share of Huawei technology in the 5G network to 35 percent.

According to a previous Reuters report, Telekom was already in advanced talks to retain Huawei as the main radio supplier for 5G when the negotiations were frozen for political reasons. Huawei should deliver 70 percent of the radio equipment at a cost of $ 533 million ($ 587 million).

According to Reuters, Deutsche Telekom previously used Huawei and Nokia for mobile communications in Germany. In 2017, Telekom handed over Ericsson to 30 percent of the volume that Nokia previously held. In the United States, Huawei is excluded from the network expansion of large operators for political reasons.

After the Reuters report appeared, Nokia denied the statements. “As one of the largest European manufacturers, Nokia is of strategic importance to Telekom. It is known that Telekom is pursuing a cross-vendor strategy so that we do not become dependent on a supplier.”said Claudia Nemat, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at Telekom, according to Nokia. In 2019, many steps were taken together with Nokia to align Telekom’s networks with 5G, including all network domains, from radio and landline access to the traffic and core network, and this in 2020 and beyond.

“We have been a long-term partner of Telekom and are proud to work closely together over the years to provide leading network technologies and services. We continue to work closely with Telekom, which is one of our key customers in Europe and the United States “said Federico Guillén, President Customer Operations, EMEA & APAC at Nokia.

After the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 24 to 27, 2020, Telekom will present an updated strategy for the procurement of mobile radio equipment, according to Reuters.

–