By Supantha Mukherjee and Joyce Lee
STOCKHOLM/SEOUL (Reuters) – British telecoms group Vodafone has chosen Samsung Electronics as vendor for 5G network equipment in Britain, the pair said on Monday, a breakthrough for the South Korean company in Europe’s telecoms gear market.
The tieup comes as European mobile operators increasingly consider Samsung in the race to replace China’s Huawei as a supplier. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Britain has already ordered all Huawei equipment to be removed from its 5G network by the end of 2027, echoing a U.S. campaign against Huawei, citing national security risks. Samsung is banking on Europe to maintain growth in its network equipment business, a senior executive told Reuters earlier this month, as 5G rollouts widen around the world.The European telecoms equipment market is dominated by Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei, but Samsung has entered the picture after it unexpectedly landed a $6 billion deal with U.S. giant Verizon in September.
Executives from Spain’s Telefonica and France’s Orange previously told Reuters that they had held talks with the South Korean firm.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Supantha Mukherjee; Editing by Louise Heavens and Kenneth Maxwell)
