Sanctions cost ZTE big in Italy, report says

US trade sanctions against Chinese equipment supplier ZTE may have cost the company EUR600 million (USD700 million) of work with Wind Tre in Italy. In December 2016 ZTE was handed a EUR1 billion contract to combine and upgrade the networks of Wind and 3 Italia following their merger that month to create Wind Tre. In April this year, however, Wind Tre awarded a five-year contract to Ericsson for the modernisation of its core network. Bloomberg now reports that Ericsson was brought in due to the US sanctions which ban ZTE from sourcing equipment and software from US firms.