Ericsson signs 5G ORAN deal with Spain's MasOrange

By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Ericsson has signed a 5G deal with Spain's largest telecoms operator, MasOrange, to upgrade its network using ORAN technologies, the Swedish company said on Tuesday, its first such deal in Europe after its contract with AT&T in the United States last year.

Ericsson last year secured a $14 billion, five-year Open Radio Access Network deal with AT&T, technology that promises deep cost cuts by using cloud-based software and equipment from many suppliers instead of relying on just one.

The AT&T deal boosted Ericsson's earnings as North America started showing signs of growth after years of slowdown.

"This deal (with MasOrange) is exactly what we think the industry will be moving towards, and how we will scale Open RAN," Jenny Lindqvist, senior vice president at Ericsson, told Reuters.

"We are still very early on the 5G curve in Europe compared to many other markets," she said.

MasOrange was formed by merger of the Spanish unit of France's Orange and local rival MasMovil earlier this year. It has more than 30 million mobile customers.

Ericsson did not disclose the size of the deal with MasOrange but a source familiar with the matter said it would involve about 10,000 sites.

The deal will help MasOrange to address demand for 5G services in urban and rural areas, and in large venues such as stadiums, Ericsson said.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

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