5G Armageddon: A Battle of Technology, Market and Geopolitics
In 2024, in China's 5G equipment procurement war, although Huawei is leading in 5G technology, Ericsson unexpectedly won a large order from China Telecom. This seemingly simple business competition actually reflects the influence of multiple factors such as technological strength, market position and geopolitics.
Huawei's dominance in the domestic 5G market
As a global leader in 5G technology, Huawei is at a leading position in many fields, such as 5G standard formulation, base station construction, and terminal equipment. With years of intensive work in the communications field, Huawei is far ahead in R&D investment and patent reserves for 5G technology. In the domestic market, Huawei occupies an absolute dominant position, and its 5G equipment and terminals enjoy a high market share among major operators such as China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom.
Despite Huawei's technological and market advantage, it lost out to Ericsson in this 5G equipment procurement. This result surprised industry insiders, because Huawei is not only leading in 5G technology, but also more competitively priced its products. Some believe that this may have something to do with the U.S. sanctions policy against Huawei, and that China Telecom chose Ericsson out of prudence.
Ericsson's breakthrough in 5G equipment procurement in China
Although it lags behind Huawei in 5G technology, Ericsson still maintains a strong competitiveness in the 5G field with years of technology accumulation in the field of wireless communications. In this China Telecom's 5G equipment procurement, Ericsson unexpectedly won a large order, which is regarded as a major breakthrough in China's 5G market.
Ericsson's success on Huawei's home turf is not only recognized for its product quality and service, but also because of its good relationship with operators. Ericsson has been an important partner of China Telecom for many years, and the two companies have worked closely together on innovative 5G applications, such as the 5G ambulance at Mobile World Congress 2024. This good relationship may have given Ericsson some advantages in this tender.
U.S. disagreements over sanctions against Huawei
The U.S. government has been imposing sanctions on Huawei since 2019, restricting its access to U.S. technology and products. This policy is also somewhat divided within the United States.
In 2024, the U.S. government announced that it would allow chipmakers like Intel to continue selling to Huawei, but at the same time prohibit competitors like AMD from doing so. The decision reflects the disagreement over the U.S. sanctions policy on Huawei, which granted an exemption. Some believe that this may be an attempt by the United States to strike a balance between sanctioning Huawei and safeguarding the interests of its own companies.
The U.S. sanctions on Huawei have undoubtedly brought some resistance to Huawei's development in the global market, but Huawei still maintains a leading position in the domestic market. The results of this 5G equipment procurement also show that even in China, Huawei cannot completely avoid the impact of US sanctions.
Huawei's ITR service system
In order to improve service quality and customer satisfaction, and to cope with increasingly fierce market competition, Huawei has launched the Issue to Resolved (ITR) service system. This system aims to provide an end-to-end service process from problem discovery to resolution, improve service efficiency, and provide customers with a better experience.
The ITR service system consists of four key parts: identifying problems, problems, formulating solutions, and implementing solutions. Huawei has established a comprehensive service support system to provide customers with 24/7 services to solve various problems quickly and efficiently. Huawei has also established close cooperation with operators to jointly research and optimize network performance.
Although it lost to Ericsson in this 5G equipment procurement, Huawei will continue to play an important role in the future 5G construction by continuously improving service quality and increasing R&D investment.
Although this war for China's 5G equipment procurement is ostensibly a commercial competition, it actually reflects the impact of multiple factors such as technological strength, market position and geopolitics. Although Huawei is a leader in 5G technology and dominates the domestic market, it is still difficult to completely avoid the impact of US sanctions. Ericsson, on the other hand, made a breakthrough in this tender thanks to its good cooperation with operators.
The results of this decisive battle show that in the current complex international environment, in order for enterprises to succeed, it is far from enough to rely on technical strength alone, but also need to pay attention to market development, political relations and other factors. Improving service quality and strengthening cooperation with customers are also the key to winning the market.