Nokia flaunted continued progress in commercial 5G infrastructure contracts, revealing it won 13 new contracts globally since November 2019 taking its total to 63, some 18 of which involve live network deployments.

In a statement, the Finnish vendor said its commercial contracts exclude “any other type of 5G agreements” such as paid network trials, pilots and demonstrations. If those deals were included, its number of 5G agreements would be more than 100.

The company also said it is the only network supplier whose 5G technology had been selected by all four major operators in the US, the three leading South Korean operators, and all three nationwide operators in Japan.

Tommi Uitto, president of Mobile Networks, said Nokia had more than 350 customers for 4G, but its first 63 customers for 5G “represent some two thirds of our global Radio Access Networks business in a typical year”.

The update comes almost two months after Nokia said it had struck its 50th operator 5G deal and had agreements in place with more than 120 companies for private wireless networks.

With 5G launching commercially in 2019, rival vendors have been updating on their respective progress in striking operator deals.

In November 2019, Ericsson said it had 70 commercial 5G operator contracts in place, while Huawei claimed 60 at end-September.