Ekholm: Ericsson Is Leading the Way in 5G

Speaking at the Ericsson Annual General Meeting 2019, President and CEO Börje Ekholm summarized the company's financial performance and improved market position, as well as the company’s leadership position in 5G commercialization.

Ekholm began by stating that Ericsson has delivered on its strategy and has become a more focused, costumer-centric and agile company. “We can look back at 2018 and say that we succeeded with our ambitions. Our focused strategy in combination with hard work has led to tangible results.“

He continued by describing company's leadership position in the current 5G commercialization.“We are well prepared to make the switch to 5G as easy as possible for our customers. The Ericsson Radio System hardware has been 5G-ready since 2015 and can be used also for 5G NR with a remote software installation. In fact, we have shipped more than 3 million 5G-ready radios to our customers worldwide, giving our customers a strong platform for launching 5G.“

The build-out of 5G networks is now happening at full speed in all parts of the world. However, in Europe this is happening at a slower pace, much due to the lack of spectrum allocation. To date, more than half of Europe has yet to allocate the licenses that operators need to make the 5G networks reality.“The process for spectrum allocation in Europe is often aimed at maximizing the revenues from licenses. Instead, the process should focus on the value created by a digitalized society and how that contributes to the overall competitiveness of a country,“ said Ekholm.

For the full year 2018, Ericsson’s reported net sales increased by 1% while the gross margin was 35.2 %. “I’m very pleased that Ericsson returned to growth in 2018. And we managed to increase our market share, despite difficult market conditions.“ Given the strong execution of the focused strategy, Ericsson is now looking to grow. That growth will be selective, disciplined and profitable. As a complement to the organic growth, the company will also be looking at acquisitions.

Ekholm highlighted the continued focus on innovation and technology leadership. During the last two years, more than 4,000 new engineers were hired, and more resources were added to Ericsson’s R&D units. Ericsson’s technology leadership can also be seen in its extensive patent portfolio with 49,000 granted patents.