>**Ericsson chief says overregulation ‘driving Europe to irrelevance’**
>Continent ‘at risk of falling behind’ on digital infrastructure, undermining its competitiveness
>The chief executive of Ericsson said a focus on regulation was “driving Europe to irrelevance” as he warned that the region’s competitiveness was being undermined and called for changes to antitrust policy.
>Börje Ekholm, head of the Swedish telecoms equipment maker, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the continent was “falling behind in a number of parameters” with digital infrastructure at risk.
>He said the focus on regulation “is driving Europe to last place [and] is driving Europe to irrelevance” which was why he believed it was “on the way to becoming a museum — great food, great architecture, great scenery [and] great wine but no industry left”.
>Last week French President Emmanuel Macron also warned that the EU was facing a “mortal” threat and Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norway’s oil fund, said Europe was more regulated and risk-averse than the US.
>Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta, who was tasked by European leaders to assess the state of the European Union’s underperforming single market, earlier this month also said the bloc must integrate its telecoms, financial and energy markets or face losing its “economic security”.
>Executives across the European telecoms sector have been calling on regulators to approve tie-ups and adapt regulation to enable companies to increase scale and gain support for investment in the rollout of 5G and full-fibre networks.
>“Why not allow in-market consolidation?” Ekholm asked. He added there should be a time limit on antitrust reviews and said the lengthy process could result in companies not investing.
>The European Commission in February cleared the creation of a joint venture between mobile operators Orange and MasMovil in Spain on conditions including the divestment of spectrum to Digi, which would enable it to build its own mobile network, following concerns that the combination could lead to price rises and undermine competition.
>When asked about the hurdle of higher prices in consolidation being allowed in the sector, Ekholm said: “I think Europe is in a disastrous situation . . . [some politicians] are concerned prices short term would go up, but [it is] jeopardising the long-term competitiveness of the continent.”
>He added Europe had “not grown as fast as the rest of the world because we lack the technology sector, we lack the digital sector”. Ekholm said he was also worried jobs would “get created somewhere else, where they actually build the new applications”.
>Another concern of the Ericsson chief executive was the continent falling behind on 5G standalone, high-speed connectivity.
>Population-wide 5G standalone coverage in Europe would generate more than €100bn in economic value by 2030, according to a new report commissioned by Ericsson from consultancy Analysys Mason.
>The study projected a €28.2bn shortfall in commercial investment required to reach this level of mid-band spectrum coverage across 30 European countries — which could be used for anything from autonomous tractors to drone delivery of medicines.
>Ericsson earlier this month reported net sales fell by 15 per cent year on year in its first quarter. Rival Nokia in April also posted a drop in net sales of 20 per cent in its first quarter compared to the same period last year driven by “ongoing market weakness”.
>Both have also previously announced job cuts and cost saving programmes.
>“Maybe I should just move on and forget about the museum but I was born in Sweden . . . I believe Europe has a real value in the world but I want Europe to be competitive,” Ekholm added.
repetitive_chanting on
Yeah sorry that’s complete BS. The EUs GDP represents around 16% of the global GDP. On par with the US and China. Any company not wanting to sell their product in the EU will have way higher losses compared to if they just complied with the regulations. Imagine a company saying “We won’t sell in china because we don’t like the political climate”, yeah that ain’t ever gonna happen, because there’s just too much money involved
Oswarez on
Millionaire mad he isn’t allowed to screw people over to maximise his profits.
OpenFinesse on
Crazy when you think about how much we as employees are taxed here in Europe. Income tax, plus every other tax and its well over half some people’s income in my country. Its like working 6 months out of every year just to pay my taxes.
Meanwhile in countries like the UAE they don’t pay nearly as much but have just as good or better schools/infrastructure/hospitals than we do.
Meanwhile corporations use loopholes to avoid the vast majority of their tax burden. Its insane. With government spending only increasing we’ll just end up paying more in the future.
Such-Bank6007 on
Tldr; “I cant fuck around, so Ill throw a tantrum”
torchat on
Yes, EU better to split Ericsson monopoly to independent businesses instead of over-regulate it.
IamStrqngx on
An oligarch would say that, wouldn’t he?
John_Doe4269 on
Right, because markets that haven’t caught up to our regulation are doing *so* well. But I bet a comms company sure would love to get rid of those nasty privacy laws so they can sell all your data willy-nilly.
MarbleWheels on
US innovates, EU regulates
middle_aged_redditor on
I’d say the lack of innovation and investment is driving Europe to irrelevance. They seem too focused on regulation and neglect any focus on actual growth.
Fluffy-Comparison-48 on
The sole fact that we still have billionaires on this continent means we are not regulating enough.
Memorysoulsaga on
If you want us to trust your opinion’s validity, you have to provide a specific example, and then tell us how to mitigate the negative effects coming from altering said policy.
If you don’t, the working class is unlikely to think you trustworthy.
crazy-voyager on
So what he wants is to allow a few huge companies to dominate the market and to consolidate all parts of the mobile service into one company? Or did I miss something?
If so, sounds like someone wants to control the monopoly and the fact he’s not allowed to proves the system works as intended.
CCPareNazies on
If this comment section is filled with fellow Europeans, we seem to have already failed at teaching basic economics on the continent.
The EU is falling behind, we used to be a larger economy until the credit crisis, now the US economy is about 6 trillion bigger with 100 million people less. But the most important part is labour productivity, we used to be more productive in the service sector per hour worked and the US was always the most productive in industry. Now the US has overtaken us, and everybody else in both, almost all relevant modern companies are US based, and a lot of the most innovative companies are US based.
We are overly regulated, and not as in we should be allowed no labour rights or pollute more, but in reporting, our companies spend more time on paperwork than doing whatever it is we do. We are in trouble if we don’t streamline our good intentions into workable laws.
kagalibros on
Even without our regulations you would still be jackshit worth of a company. Your idea of innovation was to add a walkman/music player to a mobile telephone. Which actually worked until it didn’t. He, Motorola, blackberry and the idiots at Nokia were late to the touch smartphone game and died off rightfully so.
Jujubatron on
Every business owner knows that. Don’t listen to unemployed left-wing Redditors. USAs economy is twice as big as EU’s and that only happened in the last 10yrs. China and Indian about to dwarf them too. The world is innovating and progressing, the EU is regulating everything that’s moving and making them unable to compete. You can kick and cry “meh meh meh he’s a billionaire mehh meehh” but those are the facts. Then you can go and cry about low salaries, no good job opportunities and how some Pakistani stole your dream carpenter job and cheer the new regulation Ursula comes up with.
One-Persimmon-6083 on
They see the productivity charts of the US and get jealous. Understandable. But they don’t take into account their debt levels (astronomical) wage to productivity ratio (stagnant since the 70s) and so many secondary factors (healthcare, unionisation, affordability -latter becoming debatable)) that make Europe great to live in. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Plus corpos hate regulation because why wouldn’t they be allowed to price gouge, form cartels and monopolies or provide crappy products to the punters?! The audacity! Sheer hubris!1! (/S for the punctuation)
Swesteel on
Ericsson has had every opportunity to start their own manufacturing, they sent all those jobs to China because it was much cheaper. And now this tool is blaming europeans for refusing to deregulate ourselves into serfdom.
Fuck off, they all went to China knowing the consequences.
AwarenessNo4986 on
He’s actually right, but Europeans function with a different value system and this is the reason that the US never really saw Europe as an economic threat.
Legal_Lettuce6233 on
People here avoid Ericsson like the plague because everyone knows you go there to not do any work
Coloeus_Monedula on
Consumer protection, environmental regulation and other forms market regulations are the best things that have come from the EU.
Capitalism needs to be regulated or you end up like the USA.
onkel_axel on
It’s not like we aren’t already there if you look an any leading indicator.
The lagging indicators will follow. Maybe at that point (more) people will realize.
Astrospal on
Oh no, we are being protected from your shady business practices, I feel for you
VisualGlitz on
Ericsson and every corpo who wants to milk slaves can FK itself and get out of Europe.
Money_Principle_8518 on
America innovates, China replicates, Europe regulates
pdm4191 on
Sure. That was the Brexiteer argument. Look how well thats going …
TheOneAllFear on
Let’s take a look at American companies that are relevant:
Amazon- pee in a bottle, people forced to do the shift when a tornado comes and kills them, shit wages they need to work overtime.
Tesla – union busting (thought they could do so in sweeden also) low wages, elon bragged not leaving employees go home if certain deadlines are not met.
Yeah no thanks.
Us has it’s people brainwashed that if you hustle you make it big, that is a 1% chance.
Also europe is not overregulated, US is underregulated, companies lobby and basically pass the laws they want killing competition and slaving their employees, that is why they are so big.
Defiant-Survey-5729 on
Under regulation due to corruption is ripe In the usa.
Due to republican blind eye to such affairs that will in the end kill us all if we abuse the earth with 8 billion body’s.
Think how much you consume in a year and you 1 in 8 billion.
Tell me why climate change is bullshit in the with billions contributing?
28 Comments
>**Ericsson chief says overregulation ‘driving Europe to irrelevance’**
>Continent ‘at risk of falling behind’ on digital infrastructure, undermining its competitiveness
>The chief executive of Ericsson said a focus on regulation was “driving Europe to irrelevance” as he warned that the region’s competitiveness was being undermined and called for changes to antitrust policy.
>Börje Ekholm, head of the Swedish telecoms equipment maker, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the continent was “falling behind in a number of parameters” with digital infrastructure at risk.
>He said the focus on regulation “is driving Europe to last place [and] is driving Europe to irrelevance” which was why he believed it was “on the way to becoming a museum — great food, great architecture, great scenery [and] great wine but no industry left”.
>Last week French President Emmanuel Macron also warned that the EU was facing a “mortal” threat and Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norway’s oil fund, said Europe was more regulated and risk-averse than the US.
>Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta, who was tasked by European leaders to assess the state of the European Union’s underperforming single market, earlier this month also said the bloc must integrate its telecoms, financial and energy markets or face losing its “economic security”.
>Executives across the European telecoms sector have been calling on regulators to approve tie-ups and adapt regulation to enable companies to increase scale and gain support for investment in the rollout of 5G and full-fibre networks.
>“Why not allow in-market consolidation?” Ekholm asked. He added there should be a time limit on antitrust reviews and said the lengthy process could result in companies not investing.
>The European Commission in February cleared the creation of a joint venture between mobile operators Orange and MasMovil in Spain on conditions including the divestment of spectrum to Digi, which would enable it to build its own mobile network, following concerns that the combination could lead to price rises and undermine competition.
>When asked about the hurdle of higher prices in consolidation being allowed in the sector, Ekholm said: “I think Europe is in a disastrous situation . . . [some politicians] are concerned prices short term would go up, but [it is] jeopardising the long-term competitiveness of the continent.”
>He added Europe had “not grown as fast as the rest of the world because we lack the technology sector, we lack the digital sector”. Ekholm said he was also worried jobs would “get created somewhere else, where they actually build the new applications”.
>Another concern of the Ericsson chief executive was the continent falling behind on 5G standalone, high-speed connectivity.
>Population-wide 5G standalone coverage in Europe would generate more than €100bn in economic value by 2030, according to a new report commissioned by Ericsson from consultancy Analysys Mason.
>The study projected a €28.2bn shortfall in commercial investment required to reach this level of mid-band spectrum coverage across 30 European countries — which could be used for anything from autonomous tractors to drone delivery of medicines.
>Ericsson earlier this month reported net sales fell by 15 per cent year on year in its first quarter. Rival Nokia in April also posted a drop in net sales of 20 per cent in its first quarter compared to the same period last year driven by “ongoing market weakness”.
>Both have also previously announced job cuts and cost saving programmes.
>“Maybe I should just move on and forget about the museum but I was born in Sweden . . . I believe Europe has a real value in the world but I want Europe to be competitive,” Ekholm added.
Yeah sorry that’s complete BS. The EUs GDP represents around 16% of the global GDP. On par with the US and China. Any company not wanting to sell their product in the EU will have way higher losses compared to if they just complied with the regulations. Imagine a company saying “We won’t sell in china because we don’t like the political climate”, yeah that ain’t ever gonna happen, because there’s just too much money involved
Millionaire mad he isn’t allowed to screw people over to maximise his profits.
Crazy when you think about how much we as employees are taxed here in Europe. Income tax, plus every other tax and its well over half some people’s income in my country. Its like working 6 months out of every year just to pay my taxes.
Meanwhile in countries like the UAE they don’t pay nearly as much but have just as good or better schools/infrastructure/hospitals than we do.
Meanwhile corporations use loopholes to avoid the vast majority of their tax burden. Its insane. With government spending only increasing we’ll just end up paying more in the future.
Tldr; “I cant fuck around, so Ill throw a tantrum”
Yes, EU better to split Ericsson monopoly to independent businesses instead of over-regulate it.
An oligarch would say that, wouldn’t he?
Right, because markets that haven’t caught up to our regulation are doing *so* well. But I bet a comms company sure would love to get rid of those nasty privacy laws so they can sell all your data willy-nilly.
US innovates, EU regulates
I’d say the lack of innovation and investment is driving Europe to irrelevance. They seem too focused on regulation and neglect any focus on actual growth.
The sole fact that we still have billionaires on this continent means we are not regulating enough.
If you want us to trust your opinion’s validity, you have to provide a specific example, and then tell us how to mitigate the negative effects coming from altering said policy.
If you don’t, the working class is unlikely to think you trustworthy.
So what he wants is to allow a few huge companies to dominate the market and to consolidate all parts of the mobile service into one company? Or did I miss something?
If so, sounds like someone wants to control the monopoly and the fact he’s not allowed to proves the system works as intended.
If this comment section is filled with fellow Europeans, we seem to have already failed at teaching basic economics on the continent.
The EU is falling behind, we used to be a larger economy until the credit crisis, now the US economy is about 6 trillion bigger with 100 million people less. But the most important part is labour productivity, we used to be more productive in the service sector per hour worked and the US was always the most productive in industry. Now the US has overtaken us, and everybody else in both, almost all relevant modern companies are US based, and a lot of the most innovative companies are US based.
We are overly regulated, and not as in we should be allowed no labour rights or pollute more, but in reporting, our companies spend more time on paperwork than doing whatever it is we do. We are in trouble if we don’t streamline our good intentions into workable laws.
Even without our regulations you would still be jackshit worth of a company. Your idea of innovation was to add a walkman/music player to a mobile telephone. Which actually worked until it didn’t. He, Motorola, blackberry and the idiots at Nokia were late to the touch smartphone game and died off rightfully so.
Every business owner knows that. Don’t listen to unemployed left-wing Redditors. USAs economy is twice as big as EU’s and that only happened in the last 10yrs. China and Indian about to dwarf them too. The world is innovating and progressing, the EU is regulating everything that’s moving and making them unable to compete. You can kick and cry “meh meh meh he’s a billionaire mehh meehh” but those are the facts. Then you can go and cry about low salaries, no good job opportunities and how some Pakistani stole your dream carpenter job and cheer the new regulation Ursula comes up with.
They see the productivity charts of the US and get jealous. Understandable. But they don’t take into account their debt levels (astronomical) wage to productivity ratio (stagnant since the 70s) and so many secondary factors (healthcare, unionisation, affordability -latter becoming debatable)) that make Europe great to live in. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Plus corpos hate regulation because why wouldn’t they be allowed to price gouge, form cartels and monopolies or provide crappy products to the punters?! The audacity! Sheer hubris!1! (/S for the punctuation)
Ericsson has had every opportunity to start their own manufacturing, they sent all those jobs to China because it was much cheaper. And now this tool is blaming europeans for refusing to deregulate ourselves into serfdom.
Fuck off, they all went to China knowing the consequences.
He’s actually right, but Europeans function with a different value system and this is the reason that the US never really saw Europe as an economic threat.
People here avoid Ericsson like the plague because everyone knows you go there to not do any work
Consumer protection, environmental regulation and other forms market regulations are the best things that have come from the EU.
Capitalism needs to be regulated or you end up like the USA.
It’s not like we aren’t already there if you look an any leading indicator.
The lagging indicators will follow. Maybe at that point (more) people will realize.
Oh no, we are being protected from your shady business practices, I feel for you
Ericsson and every corpo who wants to milk slaves can FK itself and get out of Europe.
America innovates, China replicates, Europe regulates
Sure. That was the Brexiteer argument. Look how well thats going …
Let’s take a look at American companies that are relevant:
Amazon- pee in a bottle, people forced to do the shift when a tornado comes and kills them, shit wages they need to work overtime.
Tesla – union busting (thought they could do so in sweeden also) low wages, elon bragged not leaving employees go home if certain deadlines are not met.
Yeah no thanks.
Us has it’s people brainwashed that if you hustle you make it big, that is a 1% chance.
Also europe is not overregulated, US is underregulated, companies lobby and basically pass the laws they want killing competition and slaving their employees, that is why they are so big.
Under regulation due to corruption is ripe In the usa.
Due to republican blind eye to such affairs that will in the end kill us all if we abuse the earth with 8 billion body’s.
Think how much you consume in a year and you 1 in 8 billion.
Tell me why climate change is bullshit in the with billions contributing?