Samsung Electronics says it has won a $6.6B order to provide 5G wireless solutions to Verizon in the US
- It's one of Samsung's largest so far in 5G networking — Samsung is pushing hard to compete with Nokia and Ericsson — Samsung Electronics Co. won a 7.9 trillion won …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Samsung–Verizon relationship has been building toward this since 2018, when the two companies first partnered on a Qualcomm-powered 5G handset and then moved to actual sales with Galaxy S10 5G preorders across 20 launch cities. What was a device-side alliance is now an infrastructure contract worth 7.9 trillion won — one of Samsung's largest 5G networking orders ever, per Bloomberg.
The scale matters against the benchmark set by rivals: T-Mobile anchored its own 5G buildout with paired $3.5B supplier deals for Ericsson and Nokia, so Samsung landing $6.6B from a single carrier nearly doubles the value of any one of those pacts. Samsung is explicitly positioning to break into the Nokia–Ericsson networking duopoly.
First-order effects
- Samsung converts a phone-retail relationship with Verizon into a multi-year network equipment revenue stream, instantly making it a major radio-access supplier in the US market.
- Nokia and Ericsson lose share at the largest US carrier by subscriber count — the same two vendors that had split T-Mobile's buildout now face a third entrenched competitor at Verizon.
Second-order effects
- With Samsung undercutting the incumbent vendor pair on price to buy market position, Nokia and Ericsson are pushed toward sharper pricing or bundled terms on upcoming carrier contracts.
- AT&T, which already committed to selling a Samsung 5G handset alongside Verizon, now has both a commercial familiarity with Samsung devices and a live example of a rival carrier diversifying away from the traditional vendors.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern of device partnerships maturing into infrastructure contracts holds, the US 5G equipment market structurally shifts from a Nokia–Ericsson near-duopoly toward a three-vendor field, with handset alliances serving as the entry wedge.
- Carrier procurement follows the T-Mobile template — splitting orders among multiple vendors — which pressures margins across the whole RAN supplier base and raises the strategic value of Samsung's broader component and device ecosystem.
The trend: US carriers' 5G buildouts are pulling Samsung from device partner into core network infrastructure, eroding the Nokia–Ericsson grip on American radio-access equipment.