Press

Austria’s flagship telecoms group A1 said on Monday it had selected Nokia as its partner for building next-generation 5G mobile networks in the country, continuing a long-standing cooperation with the Finnish equipment supplier. A1 Group said Nokia would provide it with 5G wireless technology and cloud-based core network technology. 5G will deliver super-fast connectivity and facilitate new applications from self-driving cars to medical robots. Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson are the leading European contenders to provide 5G equipment. The selection of suppliers for the new networks has become a politically sensitive issue after the United States lobbied Europe to shut out China’s Huawei and the European Commission urged EU countries to share more data to tackle cybersecurity risks related to 5G networks. A1 Group agreed to pay €64.3 million for spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band in Austria’s first 5G auction earlier this month. - Reuters -