By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Ericsson has

signed a 5G deal with Spain's largest telecoms operator,

MasOrange, to upgrade its network using ORAN technologies, the

Swedish company said on Tuesday, its first such deal in Europe

after its contract with AT&T ( T ) in the United States last

year.

Ericsson last year secured a $14 billion, five-year Open

Radio Access Network deal with AT&T ( T ), technology that promises

deep cost cuts by using cloud-based software and equipment from

many suppliers instead of relying on just one.

The AT&T ( T ) deal boosted Ericsson's earnings as North America

started showing signs of growth after years of slowdown.

"This deal (with MasOrange) is exactly what we think the

industry will be moving towards, and how we will scale Open

RAN," Jenny Lindqvist, senior vice president at Ericsson, told

Reuters.

"We are still very early on the 5G curve in Europe compared

to many other markets," she said.

MasOrange was formed by merger of the Spanish unit of

France's Orange and local rival MasMovil earlier this

year. It has more than 30 million mobile customers.

Ericsson did not disclose the size of the deal with

MasOrange but a source familiar with the matter said it would

involve about 10,000 sites.

The deal will help MasOrange to address demand for 5G

services in urban and rural areas, and in large venues such as

stadiums, Ericsson said.