Ekholm Calls for Innovation Focus in Europe

Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm said that Europe may not develop any leading industries if policymakers keep prioritizing regulation over innovation. He argued that the fragmented telecoms market is holding the continent back from unlocking new digital services and the economies around it.

Ekholm also expressed concerns about how European CSPs are disadvantaged in the competitive scale against competitors in the US, China, and India, as the majority of providers in the former continent are not making enough returns to cover their cost of capital. He believes a welcoming attitude towards embracing digitalization helped China and the US tap into 4G capabilities, in turn creating new companies that have now made it to the world’s top 500 organizations by revenue, a category under which European representation has diminished.

To his point, he noted the European Union has attracted just 4% of funding for AI to date, compared to 80% for the other two countries. “Continuing down this path, we could see Europe relegated to a museum with great art but no leading industries, lacking in digital technology, innovation, and industrial leadership on the global stage”, he warned. Ekholm also added the average number of subscribers per operator in Europe is 4.4 million compared to 95 million in the US, 300 million in India, and 400 million in China, as he pressed for an in-market consolidation.

“Building out ubiquitous, high-performance, digital infrastructure is the key to Europe’s future competitiveness, technology leadership, and decarbonization ambitions. European policymakers have an essential role in making this possible,” concluded Ericsson chief.