The UK government has opened its arms to Japan’s NEC in the hope of plugging the gap left by Huawei’s expulsion from the nation’s 5G infrastructure, in a process due for completion 2027, but it is not clear the four major carriers there are on board. Or at any rate it may be too late as Nokia and Ericsson seem to have hovered up the major or most lucrative 5G contracts between them. In September, BT’s EE, for example, appointed Nokia as its primary 5G network equipment supplier, replacing Huawei in that role. Now, BT has added more Ericsson equipment to the mix. It has just signed a RAN deal with Ericsson encompassing radio antennas, base stations and other equipment…