Ericsson said it will increase production and invest more in its Tczew manufacturing plant in Poland in preparation for the ramp up of 5G mobile network across Europe.
Arun Bansal, head of Europe and Latin America at Ericsson, is scheduled to meet Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Sweden on Thursday.
Ericsson, which competes with Finland’s Nokia, China’s Huawei and ZTE, and South Korea’s Samsung to build mobile data infrastructure worldwide, said the site would be in full service for the European market by the first quarter of 2020.
The telecom network company declined to give financial details on the new investment for enhancing its manufacturing facility. Ericsson said increased production in Poland would complement its existing production site in Tallinn.
The main objective of Ericsson is to prepare for the needed 5G capacity for European market and achieve shorter lead time with logistic efficiency. Main telecom operators in Poland include T-Mobile, Orange, Play and Plus.
Poland’s telecom regulator last month called for legal changes to enable 5G roll-out in the country in line with European Union requirements.
Huawei earlier announced that it aims to spend 3 billion zlotys or $793 million in Poland in the next five years, depending on the number of its deals for 5G rollout.
Polish officials said in January the Poland government was prepared to exclude Huawei from 5G networks after the arrest of a Chinese Huawei employee and a former Polish security official on spying allegations.
