- Swedish telecoms company Ericsson warned on Monday that Europe’s industrial structure is unlikely to be sustainable.
- The comments come shortly after the company, which is one of the world’s largest 5G wireless network providers, announced it plans to cut 8,500 jobs as part of its cost-cutting efforts.
- “The big problem in Europe is really that our customers just can’t afford to roll out the networks and I think that will hurt Europe’s competitiveness in the long term,” said Börje Ekholm, CEO of Ericsson.
Ericsson recently announced plans to cut 8,500 jobs as part of its cost-cutting efforts.
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The chief executive of Swedish telecoms company Ericsson warned on Monday that Europe’s industrial structure is unlikely to be sustainable and called for consolidation across the region to boost competitiveness.
The comments come shortly after the company, which is one of the world’s largest 5G wireless network providers, announced it plans to cut 8,500 jobs as part of its cost-cutting efforts.
“The big problem in Europe is really that our customers just can’t afford to roll out the networks and I think that will hurt Europe’s competitiveness in the long run,” Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm told CNBC’s Karen Tso on the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
When asked how the region can tackle this problem, Ekholm replied: “You know my view on this, I think Europe needs to consolidate.”
Ekholm said in countries like the US, China and India, consolidation has meant there are only two or three operators nationwide.
In Europe, however, “there are 200 operators, pretty much four plus in almost every country. It’s an industrial structure that is probably unsustainable and that needs to be addressed,” Ekholm said.
Ericsson’s chief executive said it was “very, very early” on the road to 5G but tipped India to build one of the strongest 5G networks in the world in the next few quarters.
Ekholm said that India is also “likely to start driving innovation beyond the network long before many other countries.”