Swedish kit vendor Ericsson got its main MWC announcement out of the way early with a refresh of its 5G RAN portfolio that focuses on energy efficiency.

The flagship dual-band FDD Radio 4490 apparently consumes 25% less power than the unit it replaces, which is nice, and it’s even a bit lighter too. There’s also a high power version that offers 50% more output than radios Ericsson cares to compare it to, but presumably consumes an equivalent amount more energy. They both still get away with passive cooling, though, which helps with the overall energy profile.

“We continue to evolve our RAN portfolio with more solutions for smart, slim and sustainable 5G networks,” said Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks at Ericsson, pictured with the radios in question above. “Our latest innovations will further optimize 5G sites for both purpose-built and Cloud RAN deployments.“

Green stuff was a major theme of Ericsson’s pre-MWC analyst briefing, at which the virtuous radios were unveiled. There was also trepidatious talk of the microbiological horrors that await us in Barcelona, but this pre-brief was mercifully virtual. Ericsson is sticking with its massive stand at the show, presumably because it paid for it two years ago, but it sounds like it intends to ensure it’s much less crowded than usual, to be extra safe.

That job may be done for it by dramatically reduced attendance, of course, but Ericsson is determined to leave nothing to chance. For those deemed sufficiently pure to be allowed in there will be the usual array of product demos and utopian use-cases on show. Ericsson usually serves up above-average grub, too, so we’ll be sure to triple-mask before approaching the stand to placate the border guards. Here are a couple of vids for those who want to know more about the radios from the relative safety of their homes.

Ericsson’s other pre-MWC product announcement of note concerns something called IoT Accelerator Connect, which claims to make IoT easier than ever. For companies it’s ‘a unifying layer of packaged services to minimize complexity’, while developers get ‘instant access to connectivity best suited to their specific use case, coverage and service level needs.’

“We’re proud to make it easier than ever before for enterprises of any size to instantly engage with, and benefit from, the world of IoT connectivity,” said Kyle Okamoto, General Manager of IoT at Ericsson. “By offering plug-and-play simplicity, Ericsson IoT Accelerator Connect marks a major leap in transforming access to IoT connectivity. This solution covers connectivity of devices, networks and clouds, while removing hurdles for enterprises, communications service providers, hyperscale cloud providers, resellers and module vendors, to accelerate the growth of their IoT businesses.”

Sadly there was no vid for this bit, but you get the general gist. Ericsson sounded a bit downbeat about MWC, to be honest, offering an unprompted lament about the relatively poor return on investment it expects from this year’s show and reflecting on how it’s likely to do more remote stuff in future. You could even say it was low in energy. We hope it will be pleasantly surprised by the return of actually meeting people and look forward to being some of them ourselves, if we’re allowed into the stand, that is.