エリクソンはアジア、北アメリカを渡る5G波に乗る

エリクソンのネットワーク事業者顧客のほとんどは5Gでベンダーと契約しており、これは数四半期前からの大きな変化です、とCEOのBörjeEkholmは言いました。Ericsson is riding a wave of 5G momentum and says its products are deployed in about two-thirds of all commercially launched 5G networks to date. “5G is rapidly gaining momentum around the world and 5G is now launched in four continents,” CEO Börje Ekholm said during an earnings call with analysts. Most of Ericsson’s network operator customers are engaging with the vendor on 5G and that’s a big change from a few quarters ago, Ekholm said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. Ericsson’s total sales grew 7% during the second quarter and revenue in Ericsson’s networks division grew 11% year-over-year, driven largely by network deployments in North America and northeast Asia where the earliest 5G networks got off the ground. “We continue to invest in our 5G portfolio, both in radio as well as in our cloud native core portfolio and digital services,” Ekholm said, adding that the company’s cloud native 5G core is gaining traction. Earlier this week, Ericsson and Verizon detailed results of a container-based evolved packet core (EPC) technology trial running on a live network. While the cloud-native technology was deployed on Verizon’s existing 4G LTE mobile core, the trial was positioned as a precursor to making those capabilities commercially available on a 5G network riding on a 5G mobile core. Ericsson is also preparing for large 5G deployments to commence in parts of Asia at the end of 2019, while it anticipates the sale of services in North America to gradually increase. Ekholm noted that vendor contracts for 5G in China haven’t been awarded yet, but Ericsson is investing in field trials and hopes to at least have the same share of the market it has on 4G LTE networks in China today. The vendor expects to have a clearer outlook on 5G contracts in China by the end of the year. Europe, on the other hand, remains a laggard on 5G. Ekholm previously criticized European government officials and regulators for failing to act expeditiously and letting Europe fall behind Asia and the United States in 5G deployments. “There hasn’t been a change in Europe,” he said during the earnings call. “We have forecasted Europe to be slower because of the situation with spectrum in Europe.” All of the 5G network deployments that Ericsson has participated in to date have centered around non-standalone (NSA) 5G infrastructure. “If you’re going to have a standalone you need a fairly big network to really enjoy the benefits,” Ekholm said. He declined to provide guidance on when network operators will shift to a standalone (SA) framework, but the company did recently announce the commercial availability of SA 5G New Radio (NR) software that gives operators the ability to deploy a pure 5G network on Ericsson equipment for the first time. Ericsson equipment is currently live on 15 commercially available 5G networks and the vendor has inked more 5G contracts, including with Alaska-based telecom provider GCI, which plans to bring 5G service to the state’s largest city of Anchorage by the first half of 2020. During the initial wave of 5G deployments it was important for Ericsson to be first, but now the vendor is focusing on delivering in the field and providing on performance expectations for 5G, Ekholm said. Despite the 5G surge, Ericsson executives warned investors that profits would sag in the near term as 5G network deployments ramp up in Asia. The company posted an adjusted operating profit of $415 million during Q2.