Huawei edges out Ericsson and Nokia in 5G network market, despite U.S. sanctions

Huawei outperformed its rivals Ericsson and Nokia in the 5G network market despite facing U.S. sanctions and the removal of its equipment from the core network of foreign firms. The company gained a 2.3% YoY with $50 billion in network sales.

Firms like Nokia and Ericsson (Huawei competitors) on the contrary, encountered a significant decline in the 2023 5G network market. The former fell by 8% YoY in the network sales whereas, the latter dropped by 15% compared to previous ratings.

Even though Huawei lost some agreements in the U.S., it made strong growth in China by developing multiple mobile network sites as well as connecting over 1.4 billion consumers. Under the U.S.-China war, tech vendors like Ericsson and Nokia also faced obstacles in making their space in the 5G franchise.

U.S. ‘remove and replace’ strategy for Huawei’s network equipment had equally affected Ericsson and Nokia by cutting around 5800 jobs from their firms. Huawei, on the other hand, has had more than 27000 workers since 2016 and made more sales per employee compared to the two of its rivals.

Sales Revenue for the 2023 5G network market:

• Huawei – $472,000
• Ericsson – $245,000
• Nokia – $276,000

The Chinese network sales market for Ericsson went down from $1.5 billion (2019) to $1 billion in 2023. Another reason behind Ericsson and Nokia’s fall is that Chinese operators continued to pick Huawei and ZTE for network equipment resources.

Operators believe that Huawei network equipment offers more efficient and stable performance than its alternatives. Meanwhile, the company set back its legs in the Chinese smartphone market with the 7nm Kirin 5G chip, which again helped it to win consumers’ support for its all kinds of products.

The report states that one cannot make a direct comparison between Huawei and its rivals as the other two companies never entered many sectors where Huawei is already active. Note that the Chinese tech giant’s revenue is still less compared to 2020 ($66.8 billion). Yet, it is proceeding gradually to new heights.

(Source – LightReading)