MasOrange reportedly met Huawei, raising concerns for Ericsson, EU

MasOrange senior executives’ recent visit to China to meet Huawei gave a headache to Ericsson, the EU, and the Trump administration. A new report says that the telecom operator is planning to join hands amid the tough 5G network regulations.

Orange Spain and MasMovil Group together built the MasOrange firm. It is the largest B2C telecom operator in Spain, covering 30 million mobile lines, 7.3 million broadband customers, and 2.3 million TV users.

A recent report (via LightReading) says that the senior MasOrange officials: CEO Meinrad Spengar, CTO Miguel Santos, and CMO Jacobo Galvez, met with Huawei and ZTE in China. These executives also met with their Chinese telco customers.

While it sounds like an ordinary visit, the report reveals that MasOrange and Huawei have signed a contract to support the Spanish telecom’s 5G network operations center, raising concerns for Ericsson and the EU.

In recent years, Huawei faced many struggles in the worldwide 5G market following the EU regulations. The authority instructed telecoms to remove and replace Chinese technologies from their core network due to security risks.

However, Spain has made little effort in this case. In particular, Huawei had 54% of the MasOrange network while ZTE was offering equipment for the other 4% of sites till last year. The left-out space was occupied by Ericsson due to a five-year deal.

MasOrange collaborating with Huawei?

The latest report hints that MasOrange is still a huge customer of Chinese goods and had a trade of over $33 billion last year, becoming the fourth highest in EU countries.

Earlier, Ericsson reportedly mentioned that there isn’t any noticeable impact on the quality of products made by Huawei, and it continues to be a powerful rival. One of the company’s executives said:

“When we all meet in some of the countries, where it’s fully open to everyone, of course, it’s fierce competition. If Spenger was dazzled by what he saw in China, he might not want to see Huawei go.”

MasOrange reportedly met Huawei, raising concerns for Ericsson, EU (Image Credits: MasOrange)

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