Nokia won 5G contracts valued at CNY15.7 billion ($2.2 billion) from China’s three major operators, just a week after they launched the next-generation mobile service, with rival Ericsson reported to have also secured deals.

The Finland-based vendor told Mobile World Live it signed 5G cooperation framework deals for 2020 with China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. The contracts cover end-to-end network deployments, equipment and services for 5G, ultra-broadband, core networks, optics, IP, software and managed services.

Chinese news portal Shine reported Ericsson also forged framework agreements with the three operators, though financial details were not disclosed.

The deals were agreed at the 2019 China International Import Expo, which is running in Shanghai until 10 November.

China Daily stated the award of contracts to non-domestic vendors highlights the country’s “open attitude to all international players” when deploying the technology, a contrast to nations including the US, Australia and Japan which barred Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE from bidding for 5G contracts.

Quick start
China’s three operators staked a claim to having made the largest deployment of 5G, with about 86,000 base stations deployed in 50 cities at launch. They expect this number to exceed 130,000 by the year-end, marking rapid growth following the issue of licences in June.

GSMA Intelligence forecasts China will have 460 million 5G subscribers by 2025, accounting for 36 per cent of the worldwide total.