Borje Ekholm, CEO Ericssonapparently lobbied for the lifting of the ban on Huawei in Sweden, which prevented the company from participating in the rollout of 5G networks in the country.
According to the report Bloomberg, Ericsson CEO put pressure on the Swedish minister to lift the ban on Huawei and ZTE. Ekholm reportedly lobbied Foreign Trade Minister Anna Hallberg with a series of telephone messages asking him to consider an order from the Swedish Post and Telecommunications Authority (PTS).
For those who don't know, this order was addressed to operators who were supposed to remove network equipment purchased from Chinese companies and replace it in their infrastructure by January 2025.
An Ericsson spokesman confirmed the news that Ekholm had been in contact with the minister. In addition, the news also came after Hallberg stated that she had not been in contact with the PTS and would never interfere as minister or influence decisions made by individual authorities. Halberg also added that she has never met Ekholm about this. Likewise, Jacob Wallenberg, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ericsson, previously said that "stopping Huawei is definitely not good."
Ericsson currently generates 10 percent of its sales from China, with Huawei being one of its largest competitors as a telecommunications equipment supplier. Significantly, China even warned that Swedish companies would also face the "negative consequences" of the ban if the decision was not reversed. Nevertheless, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven supports the authorities' decision.
