Orange selects Nokia to launch standalone 5G in France.

The largest telecom provider in France, Orange, revealed on Monday that it had chosen Nokia of Finland to roll out the core network of the so-called “standalone” 5G, or the next generation of mobile internet, in its own nation.

Manufacturers of telecom equipment claim that the new 5G technology, which is installed from scratch rather than being based on the older 5G, may provide the maximum performance.

More than half of Orange’s core operational earnings and more than 40% of its annual revenue come from France, making the company’s choice of equipment manufacturers crucial. With a 23% interest, the French government has influence over Orange.

As China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. faced intense political scrutiny in Europe, Orange had announced in 2020 that it had picked Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia to operate its 5G network in mainland France.

Due to concerns that the Chinese corporation could be used to steal Western secrets, the U.S. has urged its European allies to exclude Huawei from telecom networks. Huawei has frequently refuted these assertions.

Orange has selected Nokia components for its stand-alone 5G core networks in Slovakia, according to the statement that was made public. Additionally, the business chose Ericsson components to implement the same technology in Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Poland.

Remote surgery, autonomous vehicles, and other uses will be made possible by 5G technology, according to equipment manufacturers, which they claim will be almost 20 times quicker than current networks.