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The Taiwan operator has decided to go with both major European vendors for 5G
Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) has announced it has selected both Ericsson and Nokia to contribute to its upcoming 5G network.
At first glance, it appears that Ericsson’s slice of the 5G pie is slightly bigger in this deal, providing Radio System base stations and the 5G core for both a standalone and non-standalone network on mid and high-frequency bands.
“Ericsson’s 5G core solution enables our 4G core to evolve into a shared 4G / 5G network. Ericsson’s Cloud VoLTE solution will allow our customers to enjoy a more convenient and higher quality 4G voice service as well as 5G voice services,” said Max Chen, president of CHT’s mobile business group.
Meanwhile, it seems Nokia will not be supplying the core of the network; instead, their press release was more general, mentioning that they will be supplying equipment to the Central and Southern Region of Taiwan.
Chen said of Nokia: “The transformation empowered by Nokia’s 5G technology will undoubtedly revolutionize the way we interact with the world. Chunghwa Telecom is committed to delivering industry-leading 5G to its consumer and enterprise customers, and we have every confidence in Nokia delivering this in a quick and reliable rollout.”
This is not the first time in recent months that the two vendors have had to share an operator contract: at the end of last month, KDDI said that it would be partnering both vendors for different aspects of its 5G core network.
CHT’s 5G network is already being deployed and is scheduled for commercial launch in July later this year.
Many operators will be feeling the strain of 5G deployment in the coming months due to the impact of the coronavirus, but Taiwan has done a fairly impressive job of containing the virus, keeping cases to below 50, meaning CHT’s 5G launch can hopefully proceed on schedule.
Also in the news:
NTT Docomo to fire up 5G in March before SoftBank
Telefonica rallies a posse of Open RAN vendors to take on 5G
Coronavirus will not stand in the way of Telenor’s 5G
