Ericsson, Samsung’s key rival in the network equipment segment, is progressing to become a leader in 5G network technology, the company’s marketing executive said, particularly in regions such as the U.S. and Asia.

“We are very engaged in the development of 5G,” said Patrik Regardh, head of Ericsson Group’s strategic marketing division, in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Currently, Ericsson has reached the status of “post-research and pre-product development,” indicating that the product will come as soon as the standardization issues are settled, Regardh said. 

The International Telecommunication Union is currently in discussions on the bandwidth for standardizing the next-generation 5G network.

The Swedish company has been at the top of the game in terms of mobile broadband, and it is currently the market leader in the mobile infrastructure industry, with a market share just shy of 40 percent.

Samsung Electronics last week announced that it has become the first company in the world to develop technology enabling data transmission on fifth generation, or 5G, networks.

5G is the most forward-looking network that promises to be 100 times faster than 4G, which is becoming the dominant network, although 3G is still the most used. To illustrate just how fast 5G is, Samsung claims that the new technology, which it promises will be commercialized by 2020, will allow users to download 3-D film content in a second.

Regardh was in Seoul for the Networked Society Day hosted by Ericsson-LG, a joint venture born between Ericsson and LG Electronics in 2010.

The event showcased the mobile and post-communication solutions that Ericsson hoped to offer as the vision for a highly networked society.

“When you look at developed countries, already 70 percent of people living in cities. Some Asian, African cities growing extremely fast, up to 7 to 8 percent a year,” Regardh said. “That makes cities an important area to understand. When you combine this with the thought of how networking plays an important role.”

As the marketing executive stressed, cities, particularly mega cities with populations of as much as 10 million, play a critical role in mobile infrastructure and networks.

“We are early on and trying to understand how this infra is going to be used in the future,” Regardh said. “We see a network that is evolving which needs to meet a completely new performance. That’s why we are trying to envision how the infrastructure can be used.”

Such solutions are particularly timely as they come amid the Park Geun-hye government’s increasing drive for promoting a “creative” economy based on the integration of information, communication and technology.

Ericsson said in terms of ICT maturation, its figures showed that Seoul was at the top with 59 points, followed by Singapore, Stockholm, London, New York and Paris.

Regardh said he envisioned more business opportunities between Ericsson and Korea, saying that “business is already happening.”

“We have several roles, and infrastructure is just one of them,” he said. “Secondly, we have from our classic (network equipment) business that fits very well with connected car, smart grids. We will see completely new application domains in education and healthcare.”

In essence, Regardh stressed that Ericsson hopes to move beyond an equipment supplier to a creator of platforms that can be universally utilized.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)