The U.S. and many of its allies have restricted the use of 5G cellular equipment made by China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Now Beijing is doing the same to Huawei’s Western rivals.
China Mobile Ltd. , a government-owned wireless carrier that is the world’s biggest by subscribers, awarded in July 5.4% of its latest 5G-equipment tenders to non-Chinese suppliers, down from 11% in its previous round in 2020.
The biggest loser was Sweden’s Ericsson AB, which after winning all of that 11% last year, fell to just 1.9% in this round. A Chinese state-controlled media outlet described the market-share loss as retaliation for Sweden’s decision to ban Huawei and China’s ZTE Corp. from its 5G networks.
China Mobile representatives didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Just as the internet is splitting between a largely censored Chinese web and another led by American companies, so is the infrastructure behind it.