Ericsson has announce it could replace all of the Huawei equipment in the UK

The Swedish telecoms company Ericsson has announced that it would be able to replace all of the Huawei equipment planned for the UK’s 5G network should the British government decide to ban the Chinese company.

As part of an interview with Sky News Ericsson’s president for Europe, Arun Bansal stated that Ericsson was not lobbying for its Chinese rival to be banned,  but that it would be capable of supplying the equipment if it was.

It is understood that the UK is reassessing its previous decision to allow Huawei equipment a limited role within the country’s 5G networks. Mr Bansal told Sky News that : “Ericsson is not described as a high-risk vendor”. Mr Bansal also went on to say that: “We are not betting our financial plan on the UK government making certain decisions which benefit Ericsson. My hope, not my prediction, but my hope is that with the government’s ambition, we can – as a partner in the ecosystem – make the UK the leading country in 5G”. 

The UK’s mobile network ability currently ranks 18th in Europe, which Mr Bansal is insistent suppressing the country’s ability to produce multi-billion-dollar companies like the US and China. Mr Bansal has addressed a feeling within the British government that Ericsson’s technology was in some way behind that of Huawei. He said “In the last 12 or 18 months we have done roughly 100,000 site swaps globally. That is more than twice the number of sites across the whole of the UK, so from a supply chain point of view we have that capability”.

Should the UK government change tac and go with Ericsson Mr Bansal has said that the company has factories in Estonia and Poland, which could meet the UK’s needs and would not use its factory in China. 

[give_form id=”1772″ show_title=”false” show_goal=”false” show_content=”below” display_style=”modal”]