Telecom giants Nokia and Ericsson will exit the Russian market.
Potentially difficult consequences for Russia are to be considered, including mobile networks and the Internet, which could particularly suffer from these departures.
Nokia and Ericsson exemptions end
The year 2023 will bring about changes in Russia already subject to numerous sanctions affecting almost all sectors of its economy.
Thus, the telecommunications giants Nokia and Ericsson have announced that they will leave the country at the end of the year. ” We are coming to the end of the year and that is when all exemptions expire “, explained to Reuters Ericsson Chief Financial Officer Carl Mellander. ” Our exit will be complete. We are not going to deliver anything to Russia “, for his part confirmed the CEO of Nokia Pekka Lundmark.
What lead to a very marked change in the Russian networks, the two players representing nearly 50% of the country’s base stations. They also provide a lot of equipment, and above all the software solutions that allow the networks to remain secure and operational.
Russia moves towards national solutions
” If, probably, this situation lasts for years, Russian cellular networks could return in terms of coverage to the situation of the late 1990s, when only large cities and wealthier suburbs were connected. ”, explains the head of the Moscow publication ComNews Leonid Konik. Internet speeds could drop sharply, while call cuts or difficulties finding the network would become common.
For their part, the Russian authorities display a serene face. The Minister of Digital Development and Communication, Maksut Shadayev, explained that the four major Russian telecom operators had already signed contracts worth 100 billion rubles (about 1.36 billion euros) to acquire equipment produced by Russian companies.
The government is thus counting once again on the import substitution policy to withstand the sanctions. A strategy that has already enabled Russian telecom operators to gain market share in the territory against Nokia and Ericsson, which has already increased in one year from 11.6% in 2021 to 25.2% in 2022. But will that be enough?
Source: Reuters
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