In this video, we dive into a pivotal moment for the telecom industry. It’s no longer just about deploying 5G—it’s about transforming networks into innovation platforms. As the ecosystem matures, telecom is evolving to connect not only smartphones but also enterprises, governments, and everything in between.
Learn how the integration of cloud (including sovereign cloud), AI, and automation is driving a shift from consumer-centric services to a world of differentiated performance programs and new revenue streams. This is the inception point where telecom becomes the backbone for a digital industrial revolution.
Now is the time to jump on board, as the platform is already alive, serving customers and generating revenue. Watch to see how these blueprints are shaping the future of global connectivity.
Stephen Saunders, MBE:
Erik, I know you think that the industry is at an inception point at the moment. What does that mean?
Erik Ekudden:
It is true that we've been on a journey as an industry, Ericsson, that's true, but I think this is more about maturity in the wider ecosystem, but just developing, building, deploying 5G, but actually adopting new ways of using the technology, and it becomes the logic of platforms. The network has a platform for innovation, connecting it to the cloud. In many cases, it's a sovereign cloud. And of course you have automation AIPs to complement that. When that becomes a proposition in the boardrooms, kind of a CEO agenda, then things start to move. And I think this is what we're trying to show in this London event where we have the frontrunners where we can learn and we can take it to the global scale. We can replicate. That we can use these blueprints for others not to repeat the early stages. So I think inception point, when we are moving from what used to be a mobile broadband industry to now an industry where differentiated performance, new use cases are coming online, that's really fundamental. So yes, absolutely.
Stephen Saunders, MBE:
It feels to me like the telecom industry is in some ways almost going away to be replaced by something much bigger. Do you agree with that?
Erik Ekudden:
Yeah, I agree that we shouldn't focus too much on the consumers because they will get their needs satisfied. Today with smartphones, even low cost, low end smartphones, of course, there's a new wave of innovation when it comes to immersive AI glasses, AR glasses. Lots of things will happen in the consumer space, and that will be adopted into devices because it's the right technology for the mass market, for the capability to have covers everywhere where you are and so forth. But if you focus more on all these other opportunities, they are in small, medium businesses. They are in enterprises, they are in fixed wireless access, they are in governments, they are even in defense and also rural coverage with a satellite component. That requires a different mindset because then you are essentially solving a new need or you are replacing all the technology for complete network. So of course, it's a different thing than what we did in the consumers.
Stephen Saunders, MBE:
So it's a different environment right now. It's not just about 5G, It's not just what you've got, it's what you use it for, what you do with it. And Ericsson is right in the middle of that transformation, isn't it?
Erik Ekudden:
We are in the middle of it, and I think we are proudly working on our pieces, and as I think you and I have talked about many times, it comes together. When you look at our piece, our tech stack, which comes with of course, a programmable, high performance, differentiated networks, how we build AI into our offerings with autonomous network capabilities, how you expose things over a network platform, network, APIs, [inaudible 00:02:51] was very much on stage here as well today, the Vonage platform approaching the developers and the enterprise. When you see that tech stack complementing what's happening on the device and the sensor side, complementing what's happening on the cloud side, then you start to get an ecosystem play that is really solving these business needs.
Stephen Saunders, MBE:
It feels like everything's become a lot more real than it was last year or the year before. You've got a lot more partners and a lot more customers talking about how they're working with you.
Erik Ekudden:
You can see money in the growth on these opportunities. You can see also how not just our customers, whether it's enterprise customers or operator customers, they really now can show by numbers. Fixed wireless access was one of the areas that I mentioned specifically. I don't think it's so well known that already today we have passed 11% of the world's fixed broadband access or connectivity for fixed, fixed places. 11% is already fixed wireless access and it's growing to something like 18, 19% in only five years time. So that is becoming not just a workhorse, great customer proposition, the flexibility, great net promoter score, it is then a tool that will take you into new environments, small, medium businesses, enterprises, leveraging that same scale technology. So of course, now is the time to jump in. Now it's not the time to sit back and wait for all the great things to happen on the platform. The platform is alive, the platform is serving customers, generating revenues, but also it's really the right time to jump on it.