Nokia wins first 5G radio contract in China

By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM, July 19 (Reuters) - Nokia on Monday won its first 5G radio contract in China, securing a share in one of China Mobile's three new 5G contracts, while Nordic rival Ericsson lost market share after getting caught up in a political spat.

As is customary, Chinese companies took the lion's share of the order. Huawei took a majority share in all three contracts, followed by ZTE , according to a document

published by China Mobile.

Ericsson had been expected to be awarded a lower share of China's 5G roll-out after Sweden decided to exclude Chinese vendors from its own networks.

Nokia, which didn't secure any 5G radio contracts in China last year, got a 10% share in one of the three contracts, while Ericsson got 9.6% of another contract.

China's other two largest telecom operators - China Telecom

and China Unicom - will soon announce winners of the second phase of the 5G contracts.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee, European Technology & Telecoms Correspondent, based in Stockholm; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

((supantha.mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com; +46 70 721 1004; Reuters Messaging: supantha.mukherjee.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))