By Paul Rasmussen
Ericsson CEO urges mobile industry to regain leadership
Borje Ekholm, President and CEO of Ericsson called on the mobile telecoms industry to stand up, reclaim leadership and deliver true value to customers and stakeholders.
“This industry is the most democratic and inclusive the world has ever seen. We have 8.5 billion subscribers on the same technology standard which give our industry a unique standing in terms of scale,” said the CEO at Monday’s keynote session: Delivering the Digital Decade.
“Mobile technology was at the heart of the digital revolution over the last ten years, and it’s now our responsibility and opportunity to drive the next revolution. We can do this by being open and cooperative. Simply, we must drive the demand for data, exposed network APIs, and offer flexible and open the networks.”
The Ericsson head stressed that the mobile industry should not fall into the trap that was sprung with 4G. “The app economy was triggered by the widescale deployment of 4G, but the monetisation of this hugely benefited the OTT providers. We must not repeat this.”
Warming to the upbeat theme, Ekholm forecast that mobile data traffic would grow four times by 2028, and 5G with new spectrum assets could support this without huge costs or a decline in customer experience. “This powerful combination can boost data capacity by ten times while lowering energy consumption by 30 per cent. The winners will be those bold enough to deploy 5G first.”
The CEO pointed to the success of 5G in the US. “The growth in this region is largely coming from the adoption of FWA provided by 5G with over four million subscribers today.”
“5G provides us with the unique capabilities within the network to drive the next stage of evolution and innovation. We are at the very beginning to redefine our industry, but we must reclaim the leadership,” concluded Ekholm.