The telecommunications sector is still at a "very, very, very early" stage of development of 5G mobile networks.
Source. Berje Ekholm, CEO of Swedish telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson, told CNBC.
"I hear a lot of people say that we are at the end of the 5G development cycle, but I would rather say that we are in the early stages of 5G," he said, noting that the next stage – the 6G mobile network – is likely to be only an "evolution of 5G" and is unlikely to begin commercial development before 2030.
At the end of last year, Ericsson found itself in a winning situation after AT&T chose it as its partner, signing a 5-year, $14 billion deal to build a telecommunications network that will cover 70% of the US telecom provider's network traffic in the US by the end of 2026.
"The deal with AT&T means that they are on the way to creating a fully open, fully programmable network in a few years. So they're transforming from where they are today to a new world," Ekholm told CNBC.
Background. As a reminder, Nokia predicts that operators will face significant investment needs in 5G.