Ericsson’s moves outside Europe
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 6:33 am
ERICSSON CEO TALKS 5G SECURITY STORM: In the midst of a storm over 5G security — and the sales of Chinese vendors to Western networks — Europe is at risk of losing the grip on one of its few surviving technology giants. That’s the message from Börje Ekholm, CEO of Ericsson, the Swedish telecom vendor clinging onto its position as a competitor to Chinese giant Huawei.
POLITICO’s Laurens Cerulus met Ekholm at the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai recently. “You know, you cry for your own mother, right,” he said. “We get more support in other geographies than we get in Europe … We survived 140 years, we’ll survive another 140. But we may need to do it by being stronger outside Europe than inside it.”
In China, the company is fighting to special lead keep its market share as operators negotiate massive 5G contracts. In the U.S., meanwhile, Ericsson announced it’ll build a new factory and boost investments in R&D.
underscore a widely accepted fact: The EU is behind its trading partners in technology, and quickly losing its edge in the telecommunications arena where it held the upper hand over other trading blocs just a decade ago. Read the story here and the full transcript of the interview here (the latter link for POLITICO Tech, Trade and Data and Digitization Pros).
POLITICO’s Laurens Cerulus met Ekholm at the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai recently. “You know, you cry for your own mother, right,” he said. “We get more support in other geographies than we get in Europe … We survived 140 years, we’ll survive another 140. But we may need to do it by being stronger outside Europe than inside it.”
In China, the company is fighting to special lead keep its market share as operators negotiate massive 5G contracts. In the U.S., meanwhile, Ericsson announced it’ll build a new factory and boost investments in R&D.
underscore a widely accepted fact: The EU is behind its trading partners in technology, and quickly losing its edge in the telecommunications arena where it held the upper hand over other trading blocs just a decade ago. Read the story here and the full transcript of the interview here (the latter link for POLITICO Tech, Trade and Data and Digitization Pros).