Nokia and Ericsson leaving Russia
Two of the largest manufacturers of telecom equipment, Nokia and Ericsson, plan to leave Russia at the end of this year. Nokia and Ericsson leaving Russia .
Their departure may gradually weaken the nation’s mobile network over time, making it more difficult for the populace to communicate on a daily basis.
Senior telecom executives and business sources told Reuters that common Russian customers will encounter slower internet, phone drops, and lost call functionality. That is not all; prolonged network disruptions may occur while operators seek to fix the software, and the scarcity of spare components will only make matters worse.
Russia’s citizens may eventually be unable to even make phone calls.
Together, Nokia and Ericsson hold over 50% of the Russian market for telecom equipment, and they are in charge of designing and manufacturing all of the nation’s base stations, antennas, and consumer-facing gear for digital communications.
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Following Huawei’s withdrawal, Nokia and Ericsson’s exit might make it even more difficult for Russian residents to make phone calls, which would further complicate their already difficult everyday lives as a result of the sanctions imposed by other countries when Russia attacked Ukraine.
The departure of Nokia and Ericsson would send Russia back to the 1990s.
According to Lenoid Konik of ComNews, a Moscow-based IT journal, if the scenario continues for too long, Russia’s cellular connectivity will bring the nation back to the late 1990s, when service was only available in affluent suburbs and major cities.
Additionally, as the globe transitions to 5G, breaking connections with foreign equipment manufacturers would keep Russian telecoms on the 4G network.
According to experts, the country’s rural areas would suffer the most since telecom providers will take down the infrastructure they had installed there to service the cities. No software update will, in the meanwhile, leave the general public at danger of online threats and frequent outages.
Government initiatives might delay the state’s telecommunications infrastructure’s demise.
The article points out that local telecom carriers began stockpiling foreign equipment early this year, but the situation is predicted to get worse as soon as Nokia and Ericsson withdraw from the market, which is scheduled to happen on December 31.
The Russian government has began producing its own equipment, lessening its reliance on manufacturers from other countries. From 11.6% in 2021 to 25.2% this year, the market share of equipment made domestically has nearly doubled in the last year.
The country’s telecom companies might pool their resources and form a coalition to extend the life of their networks. But the operators will still face a challenge with software updates.
