PLDT turns to China's Huawei and "a bit of Ericsson" for 5G rollout in 2020

Inquirer reported that PLDT chairman and CEO Manny Pangilinan announced to reporters that it has selected Huawei and "a bit of Ericsson" as equipment suppliers for the company's commercial rollout of 5G in the first quarter of 2020.

File photo: Huawei 5G Park in China

Huawei and Ericsson for PLDT's 5G rollout

As a quick recap, PLDT was also in talks with other telecom vendors such as ZTE, Finland's Nokia and US's Cisco Systems apart from China's Huawei and Sweden's Ericsson earlier this year. But the company picked Huawei and Ericsson to build its 5G network in the country.

Nokia, on the other hand, is the company's partner to bring 5G to universities and schools.

Smart 5G in 2020

Pangilinan said that they picked Huawei as it made sense because of their current extensive use of the Chinese company's network gear.

He added that the service will be more of mobile broadband first and fixed wireless is secondary as PLDT has fiber service as well.

Panlilio said PLDT's 5G commercial services is likely to be introduced in select areas first as it cannot be made available nationwide immediately.

On the other hand, PLDT rival Globe Telecom exclusively uses Huawei tech for its 5G services. Globe launched pilot commercial 5G services in parts of Metro Manila earlier this year.

Regarding alleged security concerns, Pangilinan earlier said that they are ahead of others technically and it is difficult to shut them out because they are Chinese.

To recall, US has been concerned that Huawei equipment could be used by China for spying and hacking. Huawei argued that "there is no gun, no smoke" and the accusations are just based on speculation.

See also: Smart 5G-ready SIM cards spotted online, now available for sale in the Philippines!

Sources: Inquirer, Philstar