MasOrange evaluated bids from several vendors, including Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, ZTE, and Mavenir
In sum – what to know:
Unified 5G SA core deployment – MasOrange will replace dual legacy cores with a single Ericsson-supplied 5G SA core under a six-year agreement.
Fixed voice consolidation – Four separate IMS platforms, including systems from Huawei and ZTE, will be unified under Ericsson.
€100M contract amid geopolitical scrutiny – The deal, potentially worth €100 million, reflects growing EU pressure to limit Chinese technology in telecom networks.
Spanish carrier MasOrange has signed a six-year agreement with Ericsson to unify its 5G Standalone (5G SA) core and fixed voice platform, consolidating previously separate systems inherited from Orange and MásMóvil.
Two years after its creation in March 2024, and following its full acquisition by French telecom group Orange, MasOrange is moving to streamline its network architecture. Until now, the group operated two parallel 5G cores — one from Orange and one from MásMóvil — both supplied by Ericsson. The new contract includes the deployment of a single, unified 5G SA core across the entire group, enabling operational synergies and cost savings.
In addition, the operator has selected Ericsson to provide a unified IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) platform for fixed voice services. Previously, MasOrange ran four separate IMS systems: Orange and MásMóvil used Ericsson platforms; Jazztel relied on Huawei; and the Euskaltel group used ZTE. All will now be consolidated under Ericsson.
Industry sources estimate the total value of the six-year contract — including the 5G core, IMS platform and Level 3 support services — could reach around €100 million ($118 million).
MasOrange evaluated bids from several vendors, including Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, ZTE, and Mavenir, according to Spanish press reports.
The new core will support the rollout of advanced 5G SA services, enabling network slicing, third-party integration and enterprise use cases. It is expected to improve network stability, reduce latency and support applications such as augmented reality, cloud gaming, immersive video calls, massive IoT, and mission-critical Industry 4.0 connectivity.
MasOrange and Ericsson recently announced the deployment of 5G-Advanced (5G-A) radio access network (RAN) technology across 20 cities in Spain. The Swedish vendor noted that the rollout introduces 5G-A features aimed at improving spectrum use, device support, and latency performance. These include carrier aggregation to increase capacity and flexibility, Reduced Capability (RedCap) technology to support lower-complexity IoT devices, and Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput (L4S) to enable more consistent low-latency connectivity for time-sensitive applications.
MasOrange had recently announced the commercial rollout of 5G-A across 40 cities, extending next-generation mobile capabilities to major urban areas across more than half of the country’s autonomous communities.
