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No single company replaced Huawei worldwide. In the UK’s 5G radio access network (RAN), Ericsson has become the largest supplier as operators remove Huawei equipment, with Nokia also a primary alternative. Globally, however, Huawei remained the leading RAN supplier by revenue in 2025 and led 2024 5G core revenue. The answer depends on the country, network layer and measure being compared.
Who replaced Huawei in the UK?
In the UK’s 5G RAN, Ericsson and Nokia are the main suppliers used as Huawei equipment is removed. A later independent UK review says Ericsson has taken Huawei’s place as the largest UK 5G RAN supplier. It also says operators primarily use Ericsson and/or Nokia, and that no new supplier had entered the UK market at scale at the time of the review.
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The UK Government’s 2020 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy described the policy consequence plainly: removing Huawei without other measures would leave the country reliant on Nokia and Ericsson for mobile access network equipment. That is a historical policy baseline, not a current global market-share snapshot.
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A dated procurement example
A September 2025 European Commission report on VodafoneThree describes about £2 billion in long-term agreements with Ericsson and Nokia. Under an eight-year contract, Nokia was to supply equipment for around 7,000 sites. This is evidence of one major UK procurement path, not proof that every UK operator or country made the same choice.
Who leads the global RAN market?
Worldwide, the story is different from the UK’s. Dell’Oro Group’s February 2026 release ranked suppliers by 2025 RAN revenue in this order: Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung. Huawei and Nokia gained ground that year, Ericsson and Samsung were stable, and ZTE’s share fell. Dell’Oro also reported that RAN market concentration reached a 10-year high, but its public release did not provide exact vendor percentages.
For a percentage comparison, Omdia’s 2025 report gives 2024 RAN revenue shares. Its separate China-excluded figures show how strongly geography changes the answer to “who replaced Huawei?”
| Vendor | Worldwide RAN revenue share, 2024 | RAN revenue share excluding China, 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Huawei | 34.2% | 20.9% |
| Ericsson | 25.7% | 36.0% |
| Nokia | 17.6% | 24.7% |
| ZTE | 11.4% | 2.9% |
| Samsung | 4.8% | 6.9% |
| NEC | 0.9% | Not stated by Omdia for this comparison |
| Fujitsu | 0.5% | Not stated by Omdia for this comparison |
| Other vendors | 5.0% | Not stated by Omdia for this comparison |
These are Omdia estimates of vendor revenue share for 2024, published in 2025. They are not counts of radio sites, measures of network coverage, or estimates of installed equipment. In the worldwide figures Huawei ranked first; outside China, Ericsson ranked first. Neither result can be substituted for the UK’s operator-by-operator procurement picture.
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Does Huawei lead every part of the mobile network?
No. RAN and mobile core are distinct network layers. RAN includes radio equipment and base stations that connect devices to a mobile network. The mobile core handles functions including authentication, mobility and packet-data services. A supplier’s position in one layer does not establish its position in the other.
Omdia’s 2025 report on 2024 5G core revenue put Huawei first, but the vendor order and shares differed from the RAN comparison:
| 5G core vendor | Revenue share, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Huawei | 26.5% |
| Ericsson | 21.7% |
| ZTE | 20.4% |
| Nokia | 10.1% |
| NEC | 5.6% |
| Samsung | 5.0% |
| Others | 10.7% |
The figures are 5G core revenue shares, not RAN shares. Omdia also reported that 83 operators had launched 5G Standalone networks by March 2026 and that 5G packet-core investment rose 83% year over year in Q4 2025. Those indicators point to ongoing core-network activity; they do not show that Huawei was replaced or that any one supplier won those deployments.
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Are new suppliers taking over from Ericsson and Nokia?
Not at scale in the UK, according to the later independent review. It says Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei continued to provide nearly all deployed UK 5G RAN equipment at the time of the review, while all four UK operators were trialling Open RAN to varying degrees.
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Open RAN: a potential route to more choice
Open RAN uses open interfaces intended to let components from different suppliers work together. The UK review describes the technology as maturing, but says live deployment in the UK remained limited. It is therefore better understood as a possible longer-term source of supplier diversity than as a wholesale replacement already under way.
Open interfaces do not by themselves guarantee a diverse supplier base. The review notes that operators may face added integration and operational complexity, and that a deployment led by one incumbent can remain concentrated even when interfaces are open. Broader adoption depends on demonstrated performance, security, commercial viability, interoperability and the operator’s ability to integrate the equipment.
Other vendors and challengers
The UK Government’s 2020 strategy identified ZTE and Samsung as the next-largest global RAN suppliers after Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei in the figures it cited at the time: ZTE at 11% and Samsung at 5%. It also mentioned NEC and Fujitsu, alongside emerging challengers Mavenir and Parallel Wireless, while cautioning that alternatives did not then offer the full range of RAN equipment. These are historical figures and descriptions from 2020, not current market shares or proof of present-day deployments.
How to read claims that a vendor “replaced Huawei”
Supplier rankings and shares are useful, but they answer narrower questions than who operates a country’s networks. Before treating a figure as evidence of replacement, check what it measures:
Quick Recap
- Geography: Worldwide results, China-excluded results and a country such as the UK can produce different leaders.
- Network layer: RAN and mobile core have separate supplier markets and rankings.
- Measure: Revenue share is not the same as contracted sites, live deployments, installed equipment or a mandated removal decision.
- Year: The 2020 UK policy description, Omdia’s 2024 revenue shares and Dell’Oro’s 2025 ranking cover different periods.
- Deployment maturity: A vendor appearing in a market ranking or trial does not establish a live deployment at scale.
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