STOCKHOLM: Ericsson has signed a 5G agreement with Spain’s largest telecommunications operator, MasOrange, to modernize its network using ORAN technologies, the Swedish company announced on Tuesday, its first such agreement in Europe after its contract with AT&T in the States -United last year.

Ericsson struck a five-year, $14 billion Open Radio Access Network deal with AT&T last year, a technology that promises big cost reductions by using cloud-based software and hardware from multiple vendors instead of relying on just one.

The AT&T deal boosted Ericsson’s profits as North America began to show signs of growth after years of slowdown.

“This deal (with MasOrange) is exactly what we think the industry is going to move towards and how we’re going to evolve Open RAN,” Ericsson senior vice president Jenny Lindqvist told Reuters.

“We are still very early on the 5G curve in Europe compared to many other markets,” she said.

MasOrange was formed from the merger of the Spanish subsidiary of French group Orange and its local rival MasMovil earlier this year. It has more than 30 million mobile customers.

Ericsson did not reveal the scale of the deal with MasOrange, but a source familiar with the matter said it would involve around 10,000 sites.

The deal will help MasOrange meet demand for 5G services in urban and rural areas, as well as large venues such as stadiums, Ericsson said.