London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Sep 09, 2025

Huawei loses out as Singapore telecom operators choose 5G providers

Singapore’s biggest telecom operators Singtel and StarHub have chosen Ericsson and Nokia as their main 5G network provider, Huawei, which is a focal point in US/China tensions, still has a foothold in the Singapore market through TPG Telecom’s smaller, local network system

Singapore’s communication minister on Thursday said the government never excluded any company from being vendors for the nationwide roll-out of high-speed 5G technology, and is satisfied with the outcome of its telecom operators’ selection.

Singapore Telecommunications chose Ericsson while a group that includes StarHub opted for Nokia after the city state gave final approval for the roll-out of nationwide 5G coverage on Wednesday, leaving China’s Huawei Technologies with less significant contracts in the city state.

Huawei, which has been a point of contention in the tensions between the US and China, still has a foothold in the market as a provider for TPG Telecom’s smaller, local network system.

“We never explicitly excluded any vendor,” and Singapore has very clear security, resilience and performance requirements, Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran said. “You have a diversity of vendors involved in different aspects of the 5G system and that is in fact a positive outcome from our perspective.”

The final awards were issued to Singtel and a group formed by StarHub and M1 after they completed regulatory processes, including selection of preferred frequency spectrum lots and vendor partners, the Infocomm Media Development Authority said on Wednesday. Provisional awards were made in April.

TPG Telecom is being allocated the remaining frequency spectrum in the millimetre wave band to roll out localised 5G networks, the authority said.

Singtel and the StarHub-M1 group plan to introduce a stand-alone 5G network starting from January 2021. The country aims to have 5G coverage for at least half of the nation by the end of 2022 and the entire island by 2025. The plan sets up Singapore to join countries in the region such as China and South Korea, which have begun to offer commercial 5G services.

The roll-out is coming at a time when measures to curb the coronavirus have forced people around the world to stay and work from home, testing digital services and connectivity like never before. The technology is crucial for applications from autonomous driving to remote surgery. The announcement is also just a day after general elections were declared for July 10.

In a separate statement, Singtel said it selected Ericsson “to commence a period of negotiation to provide the 5G SA Core, RAN and mmWave network, with a view to finalising the contractual terms as soon as practicable”.

StarHub, which received spectrum rights jointly with M1, said the preferred 5G technology partner, subject to final contract, is Nokia for the 5G radio access network. Nokia is also the preferred technology supplier for StarHub’s 5G core and mmWave networks. The Singapore company is exploring other network elements with Nokia, Huawei, and ZTE, it said.

TPG Telecom said it is an active member of the Telecom Infra Project and “will leverage the extensive OpenRAN vendor community along with Huawei’s advanced network equipment” for the implementation of 5G services.

The decision on providers comes amid worsening tensions between the US and China. The US administration has banned Huawei from its market for telecom equipment, as part of an effort to curb its presence in 5G networks globally.

Singapore has close economic and political ties with the US and China, and last year indicated it would let its telecom companies decide for themselves on suppliers. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said earlier this year it had not banned Huawei, but would evaluate it based on operational requirements.

Keith Krach, US Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, on Thursday said that citizens around the world are “waking up to the danger of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state”.

Huawei’s deals with telecommunication operators around the world are evaporating, he told reporters, citing the examples of Norway, Japan, Australia, and Taiwan.

Recent events had “taken the shine off China” and Chinese companies, he said, and showed how the Chinese government did not live up to the deals it made. “The crackdown on Hong Kong is a case in point,” Krach said, referring to Beijing’s plans to impose a national security law on Hong Kong. “It comes down to an issue of trust”.

“There are so many efforts by Beijing to conceal, coerce and co-opt the world. It is waking up the citizens of the world to the Communist Party’s true intentions to dominate 5G [networks],” he said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Murdoch Family Finalises $3.3 Billion Succession Pact, Ensuring Eldest Son’s Leadership
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Court Staff Cover Up Banksy Image of Judge Beating a Protester
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
Generations Born After 1939 Unlikely to Reach Age One Hundred, New Study Finds
End to a four-year manhunt in New Zealand: the father who abducted his children to the forests was killed, the three siblings were found
Germany Suspends Debt Rules, Funnels €500 Billion Toward Military and Proxy War Strategy
EU Prepares for War
BMW Eyes Growth in China with New All‑Electric Neue Klasse Lineup
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Brand-New $1 Million Yacht Sinks Just Fifteen Minutes After Maiden Launch in Turkey
Here’s What the FBI Seized in John Bolton Raid — and the Legal Risks He Faces
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Queen Camilla’s Teenage Courage: Fended Off Attempted Assault on London Train, New Biography Reveals
Scottish Brothers Set Record in Historic Pacific Row
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
×