Ericsson explains its calm approach to risky businessEricsson explains its calm approach to risky business

Perhaps emboldened by its biggest competitor’s apparent cooling on mobile in favour of connecting AI datacenters, the Ericsson executives we spoke to at its Mobile World Congress media and analyst pre-brief event seemed more relaxed and sanguine than ever about the direction the company is headed in.

We were able to have chats with probably the two most senior execs short of the CEO in CTO Erik Ekudden and Head of Networks Fredrik Jejdling. As you would expect, they had their talking points fine-tuned, but speaking to each of them independently offered a rare insight into how the top table hive mind might be aligned these days.

One common theme we took from the conversations is that now, perhaps more than ever, Ericsson is playing a long game. This publication has long taken a dim view of the hype around 5G, which always seemed to try to compensate with hyperbole and volume for what it lacked in substance. As the company that most attaches its identity to 5G, that has inevitably meant Ericsson was the focus of much of that justified scepticism.

But now, to steal from Gartner once more, it feels like we’re emerging from the trough of disillusionment and stoically climbing the slope of enlightenment. How close we are to the plateau of productivity is anyone’s guess, and it’s probably only possible to make that call in hindsight, but Ericsson is urging us to believe it’s not too far away.

One of the challenges faced by anyone asking for a bit of blind faith in 5G has been the lack of clear new business models, or more specifically revenue streams, enabled by it. One of the early use cases put forward was remote surgery, which would spare surgeons the hassle of commuting by allowing them to use robotic proxies which they control remotely while chilling at home in their tracksuit bottoms. That not only seemed implausibly utopian but downright scary when Ericsson started talking it up.

Such scepticism hasn’t put Ericsson off, however, with Ekudden (pictured) unflinchingly hurling that use-case during his presentation at a group of people who must have scoffed at the idea at some time in the past. Specifically, he referred to ‘HoloMedicine – 5G -powered XR in healthcare’, a use case done in partnership with a hospital in Singapore. It seems there is some sort of augmentation going on there that is producing improved clinical outcomes, which is hard not to like.

In our chat Ekudden was also keen to focus on augmented reality glasses, of which he insisted there is already a significant installed-base. Again, it all seems a bit science fictiony and it’s currently hard to envisage people all walking around with heads-up displays like the Terminator, but that’s kind of the point Ericsson is trying to make.

Who knows where technology is going to take us in even the next few years? The hype around AI is now so intense that most science fiction seems mundane and unimaginative in comparison. The message Ericsson wants to convey is that it’s doing everything it can to put the pieces in place to ensure it is the default wireless technology provider for whatever the future holds.

This inevitably requires it to be somewhat speculative but (as Jejdling stressed) in a focused and disciplined way. Long gone is the diversification spam of the Vestberg era and all of Ericsson’s many bets are now focused solely on what wireless might be used for next. There’s no point in just providing a bit more bandwidth, because the 5G era has shown it’s nearly impossible to charge extra for it. The smartphone era is fully matured and growth will only come from other form factors and uses.

Much of today’s session was devoted to enterprise and, of course, the Aduna network API initiative that represents Ericsson’s biggest bet on the future of mobile. Both men were able to reel off examples of how 5G is being used in new and enterprising ways without ever threatening to deliver the fabled ‘killer app’. But when we pointed that out they both seemed unfazed, reflecting their conviction that they will come along eventually and when they do, Ericsson intends to be the best positioned to deliver the wireless support they will need.

We missed the presentation by Åsa Tamsons, Ericsson’s Head of Enterprise Wireless Solutions, but were able to catch up with her in person afterwards. Faced with our enduring scepticism about the size and nature of the enterprise wireless market, she pointed to a recent announcement from car maker Jaguar Land Rover, which has implemented Ericsson private 5G at its plant in Solihull, UK.

Tamsons conceded that the industrial 5G market has taken a while to get going but insisted it’s starting to really take off now. 5G is far superior to 4G or wifi for a bunch of industrial applications, she stressed, not least due to its low-latency feature. Tamsons also noted that it took the 5G device ecosystem a while to mature but that the recent developments around AI have created an increased sense of urgency for businesses to embrace technological innovation.

AI came up at other times, of course, but not too much. Both men unsurprisingly swerved questions regarding their main competitor’s sudden obsession with the matter, but they didn’t seek to downplay AI’s significance. Instead it was used as a further reason for technology companies to hedge their bets a bit because who knows what we’re going to be doing with that technology in the coming years and decades?

Jejdling stressed that Ericsson can afford to play the long game because its core business – 5G radios and supporting kit – is in a good place. Inevitably it unveiled a bunch more kit today that you can no doubt read about elsewhere, if that’s your thing, but we were more interested in the big picture. Jejdling’s summary of the programmable networks vision was as good as any we’ve heard: “Any developer can see eight billion subscribers through one interface, with multiple APIs to call on, to create services on top.”

It is a truism to note that the world will always find a use for more technological capacity, notwithstanding the quote attributed to Bill Gates in the 80s about memory. Just look at the current AI-driven goldrush for Nvidia GPUs, which that company would no doubt insist it saw coming decades ago. Ericsson’s investments in 5G, programmable networks, etc, are ultimately bets that the world will find a use for them sooner or later.

Perhaps a better quote to encapsulate Ericsson’s current philosophy comes from Ice Hockey legend Wayne Gretsky: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” Ericsson is betting much of its growth will come from the future location of that puck. Nothing is guaranteed but, as any gambler will tell you, you’ve got to be in it to win it.