Huawei 5G Ban in Sweden Faces Flak From Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm: Report

Ekholm said it was important to have open markets and free competition.

By Reuters | Updated: 18 November 2020 16:26 IST

Huawei 5G Ban in Sweden Faces Flak From Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm: Report

Ericsson won contracts from all three major operators in China to supply radio equipment for 5G networks

Highlights

PTS earlier this month halted 5G spectrum auctions
Huawei has denied being a national security risk
Huawei has appealed against the decision to exclude it from 5G networks

Ericsson's CEO said Sweden's decision to ban China's Huawei from its 5G telecoms networks restricts free competition and trade, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

Swedish telecoms regulator PTS earlier this month halted 5G spectrum auctions after a court suspended parts of its decision that had excluded Huawei from 5G networks over national security risks.

The Swedish telecoms gear maker's CEO Borje Ekholm said it was important to have open markets and free competition.

Huawei Sells Honor Smartphone Brand in Face of US Sanctions

"I belong in that category that believes competition makes us longer term a better company. It may be painful shorter term but longer term it drives us to be more innovative and make better products for our customers," he told the FT.

Ericsson has won contracts from all three major operators in China to supply radio equipment for 5G networks, while Nokia has not won any 5G radio contracts in the highly competitive market.

Huawei, which has denied being a national security risk, has appealed against Sweden's decision to exclude it from 5G networks.

Huawei Exclusion Decision to Be Appealed by Swedish Telecoms Regulator

China's foreign ministry has said Sweden should address its incorrect decision to ban Huawei and ZTE to avoid a negative impact on Swedish companies in China.

Ekholm told FT that he expected the overall rollout of the new telecoms networks to be delayed, adding the political focus in Europe should be on rolling out 5G as fast as possible.

"Think about 4G, the debate in Europe was: what is the killer app? The Americans and Chinese rolled out 4G fastest and the app economy for consumers is now dominated by American and Chinese firms," he said.

Sweden Halts 5G Auction After Court Grants Relief to Huawei

"5G is going to be the same but for enterprise. Slowing the rollout of 5G is a risk for the economy. Europe risks falling behind again."

© Thomson Reuters 2020

Will Apple Silicon Lead to Affordable MacBooks in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.