Borje Ekholm, CEO of the company, considered in an interview with the Financial Times (FT) that the measure hinders the deployment of 5G and restricts free trade. Swedish regulator PTS prohibits operators participating in the tender from using Huawei and ZTE equipment, due to alleged security concerns.

There was an appeal from Huawei to this decision, and that is why the tender, which was scheduled to start on November 10, was delayed.

Ekholm called for a review of the measure and recalled that both Ericsson and Sweden "have been built on the basis of free trade." He considered "important that we have open markets and free competition".