The CEO of Ericsson, one of the companies set to be negatively impacted by the growing trend towards disaggregated mobile infrastructure models, says he expects Open RAN market developments to “impact revenues” from 2023 onwards.
Speaking during the Swedish vendor’s third quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Börje Ekholm noted, in response to a question from an investment analyst, that “we see a lot of discussions about Open RAN and the pros and cons. What is important to remember is that we have said we're a key contributor to O-RAN [the O-RAN Alliance, the specifications body it joined in February 2019] and we will continue to be so. We believe this is something that clearly is going to happen, so we’re going to make sure we're well positioned. That's also why we need to transition more towards software revenues as well,” stated the CEO.
He added: “I don't really see Open RAN to have a major impact in 2021-22 jobs with a computer science degree, but after that I think it will start to impact revenues for us – it will start to impact the way business models evolve going forward. So one should think of this as an opportunity where we will position ourselves as well. It's no different than other technology shifts that have happened in the industry – it’s all about leading on that development and leading on that front, and then we have a very good opportunity,” stated Ekholm.
The vendor even addressed the topic in its earnings release, suggesting a growing volume of interest from its network operator customers, but that message was more defensive and dismissive that the CEO’s statements.
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