US proposes to take majority stake in Nokia and Ericsson

US Attorney General William Barr proposes that the United States and its allies take majority stakes in Nokia and Ericsson to counterbalance the market power of China’s Huawei.

If the United States put their large market and financial clout behind one or both of the western companies, Nokia and Ericsson could compete much better with Huawei and all concerns about their future would disappear. Barr said this at a conference on Thursday, according to Reuters and the Financial Times.

According to the minister, the majority stake in the Finnish and Swedish telecom technology companies could be taken directly or through a consortium of American and other Western companies. According to Barr, Nokia and Ericsson are currently unable to compete well with Huawei: “It is well and good to tell our friends and allies not to install Huawei equipment, but whose infrastructure are they going to install?”

According to the minister, neither company has the scale and support of a large country, as Huawei would have with China. The statements follow months of US pressure on many countries not to allow Huawei devices into telecom networks, because of the security risks involved. The US denounces the influence that the Chinese government would have on Huawei.