Ericsson holds high hopes for 5G in China

Ericsson has high hopes for China’s 5G construction and technology infrastructure markets, with a huge investment in research and manufacturing in the country, Europe’s biggest telecommunications equipment vendor said on Wednesday.

Chinese mobile carriers plan to invest almost 200 billion yuan (US$28.6 billion) in 2020 on 5G, which they say offers mobile Internet access 20 to 50 times faster and much lower Internet latency. 

“We have high hopes for ongoing 5G bidding results in China. It’s important as China is going to lead the 5G market globally,” Zhao Juntao, president of Ericsson China, said during an online conference. 

To date, Ericsson has obtained 86 commercial 5G contracts around the world, including those in South Korea but excluding China’s deals.

Ericsson is expected to have 5G contracts in China but it faces competition with local rivals such as Huawei and ZTE.

Carriers in China are expected to invest 1.29 trillion yuan between 2020 and 2025, according to GSMA, a leading mobile communications industry association.

Currently, China is Ericsson’s second-biggest regional market. Ericsson has its top manufacturing plant in Nanjing and a research team of 5,500 people in China, one-fifth of its global research team. 

Ericsson has a “flexible and healthy” supply chain even during the COVID-19 outbreak and its Nanjing plant has already resumed operation, Zhao said.

Ericsson has offered 5G-based solutions for vertical industrial sectors such as smart manufacturing and autonomous driving. It is ready to contribute to “new kinds of infrastructure construction” in China, referring to new-technology infrastructures such as 5G networks and data centers. 

In 2025, the world will have 2.6 billion 5G users, with many of them from China, Ericsson said in a previous report.