BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm is likely to sign a contract worth $1.7 billion with Nokia this week to purchase 5G network equipment, the Economic Times reported on Thursday, citing people aware of the matter.
The contract could be signed as early as Thursday in Helsinki, Finland, where Nokia is headquartered, the report added.
Jio and Nokia did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for a comment.
The telecom of arm of Reliance Industries snapped up airwaves worth $11 billion in a 5G spectrum auction last August and had launched 5G services in several cities. It is also working with Alphabet’s Google to launch a budget 5G smartphone.
The Economic Times said that HSBC, JP Morgan and Citigroup are among those backing Jio’s 5G-related purchases, while European export credit agency Finnvera will be issuing guarantees to the lenders to extend offshore loans to Jio.
Swedish telecommunication company Ericsson had in October last year, announced a partnership with Jio to build a 5G standalone network in India.
Earlier this week, Jio announced the launch of a 4G-feature phone in an attempt to reach those who have not yet migrated to smartphones, although analysts said the move was unlikely to disrupt the Indian telecom market.
(Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Varun H K)
