I look forward to joining the great team at Ericsson and work closely with existing and new customers around the world.
Borje Ekholm
The telecom industry reaches into every corner of our economies, societies, and private lives, and it is one of the greatest drivers of economic growth and human equality the world has ever seen.
I think we have challenges, but we have so many opportunities to get it right. I like it when we have a little bit of a headwind. The kite actually lifts when you have a headwind and doesn't when there is lift from the back.
5G goes beyond the regular operator business; it's a business revolution.
The power of change that mobile technology unleashes is extraordinary.
I am convinced that as we move more towards cloud services, there is going to be a greater need for connectivity.
What I think is happening in China is that they are recognizing mobile infrastructure is actually a critical piece of national infrastructure.
We don't know which use cases will ultimately be the most important for 5G, but we know that early adopters tend to get a sustainable advantage.
It's often taken for granted that the most dominant tech companies control the world's most important technology and communications platforms. Instead, the truth is that these giants run on top of the world's most important platform: the mobile communications networks.
Not all traffic is created equal. In the 5G future, mission-critical apps such as remote surgery will have to take priority over other traffic. There will need to be a regulatory regime that allows the service provider to create services that are differentiated based on user experiences.
Our job and commitment is to rebuild Ericsson to be successful long-term.
Profitability is the only way to control your own investments.
The 5G world will be a collaborative ecosystem, and the role of what each of us will do in that remains to be thought through.
5G will be a major technology in growing industrial digitalisation, creating and enhancing industry digitalisation use cases such as immersive gaming, autonomous driving, remote robotic surgery, and augmented reality support in maintenance and repair situations.
In my experience over the past 30 years in business, investment decisions can be slowed or stopped due to unpredictability in laws and regulatory framework or if free trade and competition is hampered or access to capital restricted.
If you think broadly about business, population size is a very important factor.
Gigabit LTE will be an important technology evolution because that puts demands on the rest of the network to basically be - 5G-ify it.
The first step in mobility was about letting people speak to each other; then, through 3G and 4G, we saw real connectivity - which works but isn't really designed for quality streaming. With 5G, we won't just be able to communicate better: it will democratise machines.
Having spent almost 25 years in different roles within Investor, I have truly enjoyed working with creating long-term value in our companies.
As an engineer by training, turning down the offer - getting to lead Ericsson, one of Sweden's greatest companies - is impossible.
5G will come. We can debate when in certain parts of the world. But it's quite clear that the race is heating up in North America and Northeast Asia.
If I would have to sacrifice R&D investments to fulfill a goal, that would be the wrong goal to have.
You need to invest in areas where you can be the market leader because then you get a disproportionate share of the economics when you are.
When we talk about national infrastructure, we often discuss roads and railroads, but as a matter of fact, mobile infrastructure is equally as important.
I believe in a company that combines service and product offerings which are a bit different from other industries.
Government must start to look at mobile infrastructure as a critical national resource and not just a resource for tax dollars.
5G is no longer just a buzzword.
