Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri says the company is securing about two-thirds of the contracts it competes for against Ericsson, despite some delays in equipment deliveries.
Suri expressed confidence in Nokia’s market position and said the vendor is winning 5G network contracts “quite handsomely.”
Earlier this month, Nokia director Federico Guillen noted growing interest from operators in countries weighing the use of Chinese vendors amid U.S.-led security concerns. With roughly 42 5G deals, Nokia has surpassed Huawei (around 40) and Ericsson (approximately 19) in reported contract totals.
“We compete quite favourably with Huawei, with or without the current security concerns,” Suri said in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Caroline Hyde.
Some analysts and investors have voiced concerns over delays in Nokia’s delivery of 5G equipment. Suri downplayed the issue, saying a few weeks’ delay “is not really much” when viewed against the multi-decade lifecycle—typically 15–20 years—of telecom infrastructure.
Nokia has been building a reputation for providing full end-to-end solutions. Suri reported that about 49 percent of Nokia’s orders are now end-to-end offerings, up from roughly 35 percent a year earlier.
Industrial customers, in particular, prefer comprehensive solutions. Nokia serves about 1,000 industrial clients and is adding 150–200 new customers each year. As more companies deploy private networks for IoT use cases, Suri expects the market opportunity for Nokia to be “fairly significant.”
Overall 5G adoption is advancing faster than many expected. Ericsson recently updated its mobility report to raise its 5G mobile broadband forecast by an additional 400 million users by the end of 2024. Where Ericsson previously projected 45 percent of the world’s population would have 5G coverage by the end of 2024, it now estimates coverage could reach 65 percent.
One thing is clear: this is a strong market environment for telecom vendors.
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