The business of Ericsson
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk.
What historical role did Ericsson play in the mobile phone industry?
Ericsson used to make mobile phones in the 1990s and 2000s before switching to the sale of the kit that mobile operators need to get their signals out there. Ericsson is dominant in this space now, especially since Huawei is out of favour among many European governments. Now the Swedish giant, which employs 1,500 in Athlone, has signed a deal with Vodafone to provide its radio access network for 5G in a number of European nations, including Ireland. John Griffin is the country manager for Ireland with Ericsson and is on the line.
How is Ericsson positioned in the current telecommunications market?
Good morning, John.
What are radio access networks and why are they important?
Good morning, Joe. Remind us what radio access networks are.
It's the network to which your phone connects. It gives you that signal and it gives you the ability to be able to browse and do whatever you want to do on your phone.
So they're the kind of the rectangular boxes that we see everywhere.
And do they need updating all the time?
What are R-Apps and how do they enhance network performance?
Yeah, it's in the same way that phones are updated, the technology in the networks are updated to keep pace. So you get higher speeds, you get better connectivity, and it's better for the consumer, basically.
Now, and you're providing something called R-Apps or RAPs. What are they?
Our apps are, they're automated, they're basically AI software in the network itself that helps the network to perform better. It also helps it to save power and has sustainability built into it, which turns the network into low power, medium power and high power as needed. And it has many other parts to it as well. It basically is a piece of software that actually helps the networks to give you a signal better.
How does standalone 5G technology benefit consumers?
And Vodafone are offering a new standalone technology using Ericsson Kit. Tell us more about that and how companies can use it.
Standalone is really a new part of 5G that will be deployed in Ireland. It will provide connectivity, guaranteed connectivity. One of the cool examples of it is
What role does AI play in Ericsson's network solutions?
If you're in a stadium and in the middle of a game and the game is quite busy, you can buy what they call a standalone piece of connectivity from the operator, from Vodafone in this case, and then you will be guaranteed a connection in the stadium. So your phone, your browsing, your photographs, your social media can all happen as a priority over other people.
No, I think I saw an evidence of that for the Rugby World Cup two years ago when Vodafone worked with the Irish rugby team in France for that standalone kit. Now, is Ericsson agnostic when it comes to providing a mobile phone telephony? I mean, they've signed this deal with Vodafone, but does it also work with the likes of Air or other companies?
Yeah, we also work with Air in Ireland and with 3 in Ireland. So we worked with Air since 1957.
How is Ericsson contributing to the future of mobile telephony in Europe?
We came here very early. Wow.
Well before mobile phones were around.
Well before mobile phones. Not that kid isn't around anymore, but we also work with three locally in the market providing many of the same technologies. We've had a long connection to Ireland over that time period. including the R&D centre you mentioned in Athlones, and that's been there now 50 years this year. I'm very proud of our involvement and our investment in Ireland. We hope to continue it. That's 1,500 people. A lot of them will be engineers. What do they do? Well, they develop the software that we're now going to deploy onto the network. So these are apps you mentioned, and the systems and the software underneath them are developed in Athlones.
And you're working on the sixth generation of mobile phone telephony.
Yeah, it's very early yet in that. We are working on it, but it's very early. It won't come for another five to eight years.
What's the difference between a fifth generation and potentially a sixth generation telephony?
That's a very good question that all the engineers are trying to figure out at the moment. It'll be about connecting devices, again, more devices into the network and everything getting a connection. But that we won't see for quite a while.
Now, we've been speaking for five minutes and haven't mentioned AI yet.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:08
2
What historical role did Ericsson play in the mobile phone industry?
0:08–0:40
3
How is Ericsson positioned in the current telecommunications market?
0:40–0:42
4
What are radio access networks and why are they important?
0:42–1:02
5
What are R-Apps and how do they enhance network performance?
1:02–1:44
6
How does standalone 5G technology benefit consumers?
1:44–2:06
7
What role does AI play in Ericsson's network solutions?
2:06–2:54
8
How is Ericsson contributing to the future of mobile telephony in Europe?
2:54–6:52