Huawei, ZTE Snap Up More 5G Construction Contracts From Chinese Carriers

Chinese telecoms giants Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. have secured 5G infrastructure contracts from state-owned network provider China Unicom and China Telecom, weeks after snapping up the lion’s share of contracts from China Mobile, the country’s largest carrier.

China Unicom and China Telecom, which previously pledged a combined 80.3 billion yuan ($11.3 billion) in 5G investment, last month put out for tender a combined 250,000 5G base stations as well as other gear including standalone baseband units and active antenna units.

The bidding results jointly released Friday by both carriers show Huawei and ZTE have both committed about 66 billion yuan to 5G projects, although a detailed spending breakdown was not given.

Ericsson Inc. also secured 33 billion yuan in tenders from one of the carriers, the name of which was not specified in the announcement. The Swedish telecoms company is the only foreign company involved in China’s 5G construction this year. It previously won an 11.4% share of China Mobile’s tenders for more than 230,000 5G base stations.

Another Chinese firm, Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co. Ltd., has won a smaller proportion of tenders.

China Unicom and China Telecom did not disclose the exact share of tenders given to each manufacturer, but Caixin understands that Huawei and ZTE will build around 80% of the projects.

Finnish company Nokia Oyj has been excluded from China’s 5G projects for the second time this year, though CEO Markus Borchert said in an open letter April 6th that Nokia “fully supports” China’s 5G infrastructure build-out.

Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com) and editor Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com)