Ericsson: It will take "less than 5 to 7 years" for the UK to replace Huawei equipment

According to foreign media LightReading, in order to win an important 5G contract with British Telecom (BT), Ericsson executives refuted the claim that "it will take more than five years for the UK to get rid of Huawei equipment."

Fredrik Jejdling, head of Ericsson's networks business, said the company was able to carry out repairs more quickly without any risk to British operators.

As for the timing, Fredrik Jejdling said, “I can’t give a definite timeline, but we have done equipment replacements many times before, and it didn’t take five to seven years.” “We can do it faster. We are ready, and we have the supply chain and local service capabilities to do it.”

In addition, Fredrik Jejdling insisted that Ericsson can compete with Huawei in terms of technical performance.

The Financial Times previously reported that Huawei's products are more suitable for non-contiguous spectrum, which may be licensed in future 5G auctions in the UK.

In this regard, Fredrik Jejdling said, "We have the technology to meet the required bandwidth expansion, not only for non-contiguous spectrum, but also for spectrum sharing."

In addition, it is reported that Ericsson's recent acquisition of German antenna manufacturer Kathrein will help develop lighter active antenna (AAU) solutions. In February this year, Huawei said that its active antenna weighed only 25 kilograms, and in April, Earl Lum, an analyst at EJL Wireless Research, pointed out that Ericsson's AAUs "are still in the 40 kilogram range." Obviously, there is still a gap between Ericsson and Huawei in making smaller, lighter, and less energy-consuming 5G devices.