Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson said on Wednesday it had not competed with Alcatel-Lucent  for a $1 billion deal with China Mobile which the French group signed on Tuesday.

Ericsson Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said the Swedish group had not been beaten to the deal, which is a framework agreement to provide mobile communication equipment and services.

"We weren't competing for that order," Svanberg told reporters at a meeting in Stockholm.

Svanberg had been asked about the deal, which had prompted a lengthy article in Swedish business daily Dagens Industri about how Ericsson's rival had won the order.

Ericsson, Nokia Siemens [NSN.UL] and Alcatel-Lucent are the leading players in the telecoms network market but have been increasingly challenged by Chinese vendors Huawei [HWT.UL] and ZTE in the last few years.

Source:Reuters