RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (March 5): Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson President and CEO Berger Ekholm warns other countries not to make the same mistakes Europe has made with fifth generation (5G) networks. Did.
A Swedish executive said Europe was moving too slowly on 5G and other countries should follow suit. He is of the view that 5G will have a huge impact on the economy, so it is important for everyone to embrace it immediately.
“Over the past 15 to 20 years, the U.S. has outperformed Europe. If you look at Facebook, Google, Netflix, Amazon, all of these big tech companies are leveraging 4G networks to serve consumers. .
“Europe has done very little in this regard. Europe actually fell behind by not investing in 4G, and now the same thing is actually happening with 5G,” Ekholm said. He spoke during a fireside chat at the global technology event LEAP 2024. on Monday at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center.
He went on to say that Europe’s problem is that even though it is starting to become a region with good food and great art, it has “no industry”.
“Right now, when you visit a European country, you almost always end up connected to a 3G network. That’s a big problem. Europe tried to take the lead in regulation, but it didn’t work. Europe is an innovation. We should have taken the lead, but unfortunately we went in the wrong direction,” Ekholm said.
About 20 years ago, he said, Europe didn’t think it would be profitable to invest in 4G. That’s because Europe thought its own 3G network was sufficient, and that was actually true at the time.
“But what happened then was that Europe failed to foresee what new technology would bring. And, as we have seen, with 4G, consumers could become fully digital Europe is currently lagging behind,” he said.
Ekholm said that about 20 years ago Western Europe was considered the leader in mobile connectivity. However, in the 4G era, most of the applications were created in China and the United States.
“Why is that? It’s because these two countries were the first to roll out strong mobile data networks, or 5G, nationwide,” he said.
Headquartered in Stockholm, Ericsson is a multinational networking and communications giant currently deploying 158 live 5G networks across 67 countries around the world.
Closer to home, Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) announced in July 2021 that it had appointed Ericsson (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd as the network equipment provider to design and build a nationwide 5G network at a total cost of RM11 billion.
Interestingly, Ekholm highlighted that there are currently 8.5 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, meaning there are more mobile phones than toothbrushes in the world.
“People can use 4G to make video calls and make payments, which is a great development. But 5G is the next big thing, a whole new generation. Its performance is 10 times that of 4G.
“But for me, 5G is more than just technology. Yes, technology is important, but what excites me even more is what 5G will enable, what we humans can do in the future.” he elaborated.
For example, Ekholm said 5G has the potential to democratize innovation.
“With 5G, you can innovate anywhere in the world and send applications around the world. You don’t have to be in Silicon Valley to develop next-generation applications.
“The economic impact of 5G is already big, but it’s going to get even bigger. Today, everyone’s talking about generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the cloud, but all of these digital technologies have mobile connectivity,” he said. It’s necessary.”
In fact, the green transition can’t happen without connectivity, Ekholm said.
“Networks that rely on wind, solar and other renewable energies will need to fully digitize their networks,” he explained.
Ekholm also said that “we’ve only scratched the surface” of the new era when it comes to 5G’s capabilities.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged that around 3 billion people are currently not connected to the internet and this is a problem that needs to be solved.
“We are progressing, but not fast enough. Ultimately, we all need to be connected. Otherwise, how will we run government services in a digital world? Is that so?” Ekholm asked.
