Around 2017, as telecom companies around the world began signing contracts with equipment providers to build 5G networks, it emerged that China’s Huawei was in a leading position, offering gear that was perceived by the industry to be high-quality and competitively priced. Huawei looked likely to play a bigger role in the construction of 5G networks than any other company, overtaking Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia, the only other main producers of the equipment on cell towers.
