As part of a major overhaul of its mobile network in Norway, Telia Company will swap out the 2G and 3G equipment it has from Nokia Networks and replace it with kit from Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (See TeliaSonera Picks Ericsson, Huawei in Norway.)

In a three-year deal announced today, the operator will deploy Ericsson's RBS 6000 multi-standard base stations that support GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA Evolution and Long Term Evolution (LTE) in the northern part of Norway. In the southern part of the country, the operator has selected Huawei to supply its SingleRAN@Broad base stations, which support GSM, HSPA+ and LTE. (See TeliaSonera Picks Ericsson in Norway .)

A TeliaSonera spokeswoman confirmed to Light Reading Mobile that as part of this project the operator will replace the 2G and 3G equipment from Nokia Siemens with the new gear from Ericsson and Huawei.

"We are building a new, world class mobile network in Norway with 2G, 3G and 4G access to offer our customers a major coverage and speed improvement. We have selected Huawei and Ericsson to deliver the network based on their high quality technology and competitive total solutions," stated Claes Nycander, CTO of mobility services at TeliaSonera, in a press announcement.

TeliaSonera's mobile operator in Norway is NetCom AS , which is the second-largest mobile operator in the country with 1.6 million customers. By 2012, the operator aims to have 3G coverage for 95 percent of the Norwegian population and LTE coverage for 89 percent of the population.

Why this matters
The battle for LTE deals is fierce and every contract awarded is important as vendors jostle for share in the next-generation mobile broadband networks. In this latest skirmish, Huawei and Ericsson have emerged the victors, while Nokia Siemens has lost an LTE opportunity in one part of TeliaSonera's 4G empire.

Huawei has supplied TeliaSonera's LTE network in Oslo, Norway, while Ericsson has supplied the LTE network in Stockholm, Sweden, ever since the networks launched in late 2009. But at this time last year, TeliaSonera announced that it had selected Ericsson and Nokia Siemens for the national rollouts of LTE in these markets, leaving Huawei out of future LTE deployments. (See NSN Replaces Huawei in Euro LTE Rollout.)

With today's news, Huawei regains its LTE position at TeliaSonera in Norway and becomes a new supplier of 2G and 3G equipment to the carrier as well.

According a TeliaSonera spokeswoman, the operator has deployed Nokia Siemens' LTE equipment in Sweden, but not in Norway, as part of the supplier agreement announced in early 2010. Ericsson has supplied equipment for new LTE rollouts in Norway, she added.

For Nokia Siemens, this deal is a blow. The vendor remains a mobile supplier to TeliaSonera in Sweden and Finland, but now it is to be replaced in Norway.

For Ericsson, the Norwegian contract marks the first time the Swedish vendor has supplied GSM and WCDMA equipment to TeliaSonera in Norway. For more
Some of the most hotly contested LTE deals are in the Nordic markets, mainly because it is the home turf of two of the industry's biggest suppliers. Here's a snapshot of the LTE action there and elsewhere:

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile