Losing 5G work from Telecom Italia, one of Huawei's biggest clients in Europe, would be a blow to the Chinese technology giant, which has already lost some business to rivals Nokia and Ericsson.
Telecom Italia has sent a letter informing Huawei of its intention to call off the contract, one of the sources said. Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore first reported the letter.
Its decision to pull out will leave its 10pc share in North America, where it is the No. 3 brand, to be gobbled up by smartphone titans Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.
Nokia said its portfolio for C-Band, meaning satellite transmissions in the 4-8GHz frequency range, includes support for different 5G networks, cloud-based implementations and Open RAN products.
C-Band spectrum provides a good balance of both capacity and coverage, while also allowing rapid 5G rollout and fast introduction of services.
