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Nokia’s China sales plunge
04. 02. 2026 Wednesday / By: Robert Denes / Business / Exact time: BST / Print this page
E ricsson and Nokia’s revenue in the region fell sharply last year as geopolitics continued to encroach. Western visitors to the telecoms sector often return home enthralled by the country’s vast 5G infrastructure. A series of base stations have sprung up in major cities, leaving no escape from the 5G signal.
There were 4.83 million of them at the end of November, up 579,000 from the end of 2024, according to a Chinese government update. In a single year, China appears to have installed more 5G base stations than Europe has installed since the technology was first introduced. The expected explosion in 5G spending in a country of 1.4 billion people explains why China once seemed so attractive to Ericsson and Nokia.
The bigger decline came in 2021, when Chinese sales nearly halved to about $1.1 billion from the previous year. To impartial observers, this looked like an orchestrated Chinese response to the West’s campaign against Huawei and ZTE. Sweden, in particular, banned Chinese manufacturers from the 5G market in October 2020.
Figures shared by Nokia at the end of 2025 put the combined Scandinavian manufacturers’ share of the Chinese market at just 3% at the time. Nokia’s first 5G surprise came in 2020, when the Finnish manufacturer failed to secure key radio access network (RAN) contracts with Chinese operators. At the time, the decision reflected concerns about Nokia’s 5G competitiveness more than geopolitics. Ultimately, Ericsson came away with a slew of deals. By April, however, Nokia was talking about exiting the Chinese RAN market. “The return of 5G radio is not out of the question in the future, but our approach has been consistently measured,” then-CEO Rajeev Suri told reporters on the phone.
Unlike Ericsson, Nokia does not break out mainland China revenue, lumping it in with sales in neighboring Hong Kong and Taiwan. But that “Greater China” business is in decline. Total annual revenue — which includes Nokia’s fixed, Internet Protocol and optical networking products, as well as 5G — fell from nearly 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in 2019 to about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in 2020, before rising again to nearly 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in 2022. But two years later, it had fallen to about 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion).
In mobile, if not more broadly, Nokia recently led the way in completely exiting its China business. “The Western suppliers, which are just us and Ericsson, now have a 3% market share in China and that’s going down, so they’re going to lock us out of China for national security reasons,” Tommi Uitto, former president of Nokia’s mobile networks business, saidat a September press conference in Finland, which was also attended by Justin Hotard, Nokia’s CEO.
"Uitto’s comments came a few months before Nokia announced in its latest earnings update that its revenue in Greater China would fall by a further 19% in 2025, to €913 million ($1.08 billion) — just 42% of what Nokia earned in the region seven years earlier. “I think this is a very good and important step for Europe because building reliable networks is key to sovereignty,” Hotard said last week."
Nokia’s latest move to acquire full ownership of Nokia Shanghai Bell (NSB) may seem controversial to observers. It previously ran the Chinese business as a joint venture with China Huaxin, a state-owned company. But in December it acquired full ownership of NSB for 501 million euros ($592 million) in cash, according to its latest financial statement.
"This will allow Nokia to simplify its ownership structure in China while Nokia remains committed to continuing to serve the local market,” Nokia said."
However, by giving Nokia full control of NSB, the acquisition will allow it to reduce spending on the business and avoid repeating the technology investments it continues to make at the group level. Ultimately, the acquisition could help to prevent a complete retreat from the Chinese market. Over the past few years, Nokia has cut more jobs in Greater China than in any other region. Although data for 2025 is not yet available, the Greater China workforce is expected to have 8,700 employees in 2024, down from 15,700 in 2019.
If Uitto is correct, none of the Nordic manufacturers are likely to have a mobile presence in China by the time 6G arrives. Chinese operators have been quick to invest in more advanced mobile network technologies than European and American telecoms operators. The exclusion from China would leave Ericsson and Nokia in the lurch.
It could leave the world out of the most promising 6G market. Whether or not the global standard holds it together, it would further increase concerns about the separation of 6G into Western and Chinese versions.
Via Link