Sweden on Tuesday appointed the winners of the 5G auction which had been banned from the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, excluded from the new network of the Nordic country by measure of national security.
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In total, four operators, including Telia Sweden and Net4Mobility (Tele2 and Telenor) were selected for a total of more than 2 billion crowns (around 200 million euros), announced the Swedish telecommunications authority (PTS).
The auction was for the 3.5 GHz and 2.3 GHz bands.
For the first time, operators were banned from submitting offers using equipment from Chinese groups Huawei and ZTE.
Tele2 and Telenor have indicated that they have chosen the Swedish Ericsson and the Finnish Nokia, the main competitors of the world number one in this niche.
The Swedish telecom authority announced on October 20 that it would ban new equipment from Huawei and ZTE from the country's new 5G telecom network as a national security measure.
Equipment already installed must be withdrawn by January 1, 2025. Huawei appealed the decision in early November, leading initially to the suspension of the call for tenders and the postponement of the auctions which were originally scheduled to start November 10.
But the Stockholm Administrative Court of Appeal ruled in early January that the general interests at stake were too great for the tender to be blocked.
This judicial decision thus paved the way for the launch of a call for tenders by PTS, without the Chinese group being able to participate.
Swedish justice has yet to rule on the merits of Huawei's appeal.
Second country in Europe to ban Huawei
The Chinese giant's ban, which sparked fierce protest from Beijing, is based on a new law that came into effect in January, as well as two unpublished reports from the armed and security forces.
Their review aimed to ensure that the use of radio equipment in the 5G network "does not harm the security of Sweden".
The Scandinavian country had become the second country in Europe, after the United Kingdom in mid-July - and the first in the European Union - to explicitly ban Huawei from almost all of the infrastructure needed to run its 5G network. , the fifth generation of mobile internet.