Ericsson’s Massive MIMO technology is producing massive business
While Huawei and Ericsson sold Massive MIMO gear last year, it wasn’t until this year that Nokia had a similar product. A spokesman defended the company and says that it is on track with its long-term strategy. Nonetheless, Nokia is losing market share as Ericsson’s Massive MIMO technology is favored by telecom executives since it allows more of its customers to receive signals from existing towers. This saves wireless executives from spending money to build new towers and prevents them from having to deal with all of the paperwork required to construct them. Ericsson and Huawei won contracts to supply 5G gear to China’s three largest wireless carriers earlier this year. China is the second-largest wireless market in the world after the U.S. and Huawei isn’t expected to win any major contracts in the states.
Huawei does have a major problem. Thanks to the latest restrictions on the company put in place by the U.S. Commerce Department, foundries using U.S. technology to manufacture chips need to obtain a license from the U.S. government to ship chips to Huawei. This will prevent the latter from receiving the cutting-edge components that it needs to sell its 5G gear with the quality that Huawei is known for. Despite this, Ericsson is not taking things for granted and is proceeding as though Huawei will be able to buy the semiconductors it needs from a Chinese source.
When Ericsson first entered the business of supplying networking gear to wireless firms, it was having a hard time competing with Huawei and ZTE. Three years ago, Ericsson made some moves to focus on wireless networks that are now starting to pay off for the company.
