Hindsight is a grand thing, and flattering, too; but you could see Börje Ekholm and Per Narvinger operating in tandem at Ericsson’s booth at MWC in early March – at close quarters, attended together by press minders. Still, news that Narvinger, 18 months in charge of the Swedish firm’s networks business, is to replace Ekholm, nine years as chief executive, comes out of nowhere today. This is a “well prepared and orderly” succession, the company clarified. Ekholm will step down at the end of September, and be an advisor to Narvinger until June next year.

RCR does not usually pay much mind to corporate musical chairs, even at the top of the game; there’s just too much broader strategic intrigue in play. It is the kind of appointment that gets covered in the business press anyway. But Ericsson is a cornerstone outfit in this industry, and its strategy, especially versus old rival Nokia, captures very well the market’s wilder jeopardy: pivot or play on? Ericsson is playing on, dead set on the position that Ekholm has helped to establish for it: as the leading western 5G vendor and, hence logically, as a pure-play 3GPP loyalist.

Which is different to Nokia, of course – which is pivoting to rely less on the flat-lining mobile sector, which it has arguably (!) lost to Ericsson, and which is caught between yawning generational 5G and 6G upgrade cycles. Nokia’s new US chief Justin Hotard, recruited from Intel, has instead set the Finnish firm a bold course to hoover-up new business in the buzzy parallel discipline of fiber optical networks, to capitalize on the high-rolling AI interconnect interests of hyperscalers and frontier companies. These companies are not all-out local rivals, as they once were.

Their different characters have forked their different paths. Nokia, so bold for so long with its little private networks business, has been as ruthless to axe such an influential mid-term industrial prospect as it has been to jump both-feet on the DCI bandwagon, plus on some AI-RAN adjacency with $1 billion of Nvidia’s cash. The markets have responded; its shares have soared. The private 5G discussion is anecdotal, but informative: Ericsson, so worried five years ago to upset its carrier customers while Nokia was bypassing them to build the market, is the last big vendor brand left to give a sh*t about enterprise campuses.

It is either classic juggernaut corporate strategy, like Paulie in Goodfellas – who ‘might move slow, but only because he doesn’t have to move for anyone’. Siemens is the same. Or like Apple, which will never be first-to-market. Or else it is just inherent industrial conservatism – which might or might not come from its national character, but probably comes from its leadership position. Either way, its niche mid-term private networks strategy complements its core nid-term public networks business, and confirms its pure-play status. But enough of that.

Narvinger bleeds Ericsson blue; he joined in 1997, and has been with the firm his entire career. “This is a pivotal time,” he says. “As AI continues to industrialize, this will require advanced connectivity.” So what will Ericsson do about it? Nothing, it seems; it will keep (evolve) doing the same. And despite false characterizations about its flatter valuation (versus Nokia’s multiple-driven re-rated fortunes anyway; where Ericsson trades like an earnings-driven and range-bounded cyclical compounder, moving with familiar capex cycles), this is perfectly sound logic.

Its approach is structurally conservative but totally aligned with how telco money is spent. Operators are still deep in the 5G monetization phase, and capex is under pressure and ROI is closely scrutinized. So Ericsson’s focus on mid-cycle 5G optimization, AI-driven RAN efficiency, incremental enterprise exposure via APIs, some future growth and influence with private networks is coupled to proper budget lines, in telecoms and for telecoms. Narvinger’s appointment is consistent with all of this: continuity and leadership in the business it knows.

It is sharpening its execution, and not grasping at reinvention. Narvinger told RCR all of this at MWC in March; the article is worth revisiting. Ericsson is due a break.

James Blackman
Executive Editor
RCR Wireless News

RCR Top Stories

New Ericsson chief: Thoughts, as above, about Ericsson’s succession planning at the top, signalling strategic continuity in 5G execution – and thrown into relief as old rival Nokia continues to pursue a more aggressive AI infrastructure pivot.

Optical decisions: AI infrastructure is reshaping optical networking, but Ciena argues there will be no single winning architecture as operators balance power, capacity, deployment speed and fiber constraints for data center interconnect.

AI’s truth problem: As enterprises move from AI assistants to autonomous agents, Eseye argues that success will depend less on compute power and more on access to trusted, real-time data grounded in physical reality.

TSMC’s CoPoS: TSMC is accelerating development of its CoPoS panel-level packaging tech to overcome AI chip scaling limits, intensifying competition with Samsung as advanced packaging becomes a bottleneck in AI chip performance.

Monetizing AI nets: Telcos are using AI to automate operations, cutting costs and improving efficiency. The next opportunity is monetizing AI through edge compute, sovereign AI, and new connectivity services, says Cisco chief Chuck Robbins.

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Beyond the Headlines

Sovereign strategies: As nations build sovereign AI, successful strategies are converging on a formula: controlling critical bottlenecks. The game is to turn power, infra, and regulation into strategic advantage. Vish Nandlall with the analysis.

Anterix tests NTN: Last month, the FCC gave Anterix the go-ahead to test direct-to-device communications with Lynk Global. Testing has already begun, and CEO Scott Lang says the initial results are “terrific”.

ASML warns EU: ASML chief Christophe Fouquet’s criticism of the EU’s evolving Chips Act is less an attack on industrial policy than a challenge to where sovereignty can realistically be exercised in a global AI economy.

Corning’s rise: Corning’s latest agreements with Meta, Nvidia and Amazon highlight the growing importance of optical fiber and interconnect technologies as hyperscalers heavily invest for the next generation of AI infrastructure.

D2D for the 1%: Speaking days before SpaceX’s IPO announcement, AT&T’s CFO framed satellite D2D as filling the rural 1% gap, not threatening telco margins, and backed three-carrier cooperation on spectrum.

What We’re Reading

Mobilty report: Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report says accelerating 5G adoption, rising mobile data traffic, and early AI network effects are reinforcing demand for advanced connectivity, FWA growth, and the shift to 5G SA and 6G prep.

Customers first: Verizon is reshaping its consumer strategy with a “customer-first” overhaul led by simpler plans, AI-driven service, and loyalty rewards aimed at reducing churn, as it competes intensively with AT&T and T-Mobile.

Social media ban: The UK will ban social media for under-16s from spring 2027, targeting platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, in a landmark online safety move aimed at protecting children and restoring “a healthier childhood.”

NTN architecture: TM Forum has a new Open Digital Architecture (ODA) for satellites, extending its telco framework to integrate satellite and terrestrial networks, aiming to unlock scalable, interoperable services across a multi-orbit ecosystem.

Next-gen DC infra: Schneider Electric and Foxconn have a deal to develop next-gen AI data center infra, combining energy management and manufacturing capabilities to deliver modular systems as AI demand accelerates.

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