Signal Strength: The Rise, Fall, and Reinvention of Ericsson
Founded in 1876 by Lars Magnus Ericsson in a tiny Stockholm workshop, Ericsson began as a repair shop for telegraph equipment. But within a few decades, it was building its own phones—setting the stage for one of the longest-running telecom sagas in the world.
Throughout the 20th century, Ericsson quietly built the plumbing of global communication. While Nokia became the face of phones, Ericsson focused on the towers, switches, and protocols behind the scenes. It bet early on wireless and helped define the GSM standard, which would go on to power most of the world’s mobile networks.
By the late ’90s, Ericsson was riding high—one of the “Big Three” in mobile handsets alongside Nokia and Motorola. But its fortunes changed fast. Its Symbian-era phones couldn’t keep pace with design-led competitors. In 2001, it spun off its mobile division into a joint venture with Sony, which eventually faded into irrelevance. Nokia’s collapse would follow, but Ericsson saw the cliff early—and pivoted.
Instead of chasing the consumer, Ericsson leaned into networks. It doubled down on R&D in mobile infrastructure, became one of the largest suppliers of base stations and radio access networks, and played a key role in every wireless generation from 2G to 5G. It weathered brutal competition with Huawei and ZTE, won key contracts in Europe and the U.S., and emerged as a geopolitical linchpin in the global battle over secure telecom infrastructure.
Ericsson today is a $25B+ company with over 100,000 employees. It still operates from Sweden, but its customers are everywhere. It builds software-defined networks, helps telecoms virtualize their infrastructure, and is investing in 6G and edge computing. The company also acquired Vonage in 2022 to get closer to the enterprise developer ecosystem.
What makes Ericsson unique is its staying power. It never chased headlines, but quietly shaped how billions of people connect—through cables, towers, and code. And as the world prepares for the next leap in connectivity, it’s still there: not the loudest signal, but one of the most consistent.
