Ericsson Radio Systems

Ericsson Radio Systems AB was the name of a wholly owned subsidiary in the Ericsson sphere, founded on 1 January 1983 by buying out all former owners of Svenska Radioaktiebolaget (SRA). The company was well known in Scandinavia and elsewhere in the 1980s, as it was deploying NMT systems and developing a line of mobile telephones under the brand name Hotline. In 2002 the subsidiary changed its name to simply Ericsson AB and absorbed 19 other legal entities in the Ericsson sphere, but kept its company registration number with the Swedish state, so it is still the same legal entity as Ericsson Radio Systems. The merge of the smaller legal entities was done to cut down operating costs.[1] The main activity within Ericsson AB is infrastructure for mobile telephony.

History

1 January 1983, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary under the name Ericsson Radio Systems AB.[2] This year the company had 3998 employees and described its business as advanced wireless communications for civilian use. The company was organized in the following areas:[3]

The restructuring of 1986

1 March 1986, Nils Rydbeck was appointed manager of research and development of mobile telephones in Lund, coming from a former assignment of developing a combat-net radio.[6] After this he quickly presented a 10-year plan for development of a series of mobile telephones to Åke Lundkvist. The business area for mobile telephone was restructured the following year into tow separate business areas with Lundkvist as CEO and Ulf Johansson as assisting CEO:[8]

Systems including base stations and similar products reporting to Håkan Jansson. This area was controlled from the office in Stockholm, where Ericsson moved to world leadership by fusing the AXE telephone exchange with base stations for both NMT, ETACS and AMPS. The coming year, Ericsson controlled 30% of the world market for mobile telephone systems, and worked actively with the specification of GSM.

Terminals, i.e. mobile phones, reporting to Flemming Örneholm. This area was entirely controlled from Lund and from the former employees in Stockholm only two people moved along to Lund: Flemming himself and sales manager Kjell Johanson. The terminal products were at this time pieces with a weight around a few kilograms and intended to be mounted in cars and powered by the electrical system of the car. During 1986, around 10,000 terminals of this type were manufactured. The main competitors were Motorola and Nokia (at this time under the brand name Mobira).[8]

Further structural development

1 October 1988, Lars Ramqvist replaced Åke Lundkvist as CEO, and Ericsson's business area for defence communications was folded into the company.[9]

On 1 July 1989 a new joint venture company was formed together with General Electric under the name Ericsson GE Mobile Communications. The company consisted of all mobile phone activity of both companies in Sweden and USA. Ericsson owned 60% of the company, and General Electric owned 40%. In this fusion GE contributed, among other things, a factory of some 1,600 employees in Lynchburg, Virginia. Ericsson Radio Systems former CEO Åke Lundqvist moved to the US as CEO for the new company, which also controlled the mobile handset activities in Kumla and the research facility in Lund.[10]

In the annual report for 1989, the activities of Ericsson Radio Systems are described as divided into the following areas (the percentage is specified as the ratio of the total billing of 1989):[11]

In 1990 Ericsson GE Mobile Communications, at the initiative of Åke Lundkvist, opened a new office for research and development in

type	Subsidiary, Aktiebolag
foundation	1 January 1983
location city	Stockholm
location country	Sweden
key people	Nils Hörjel, Åke Lundqvist, Lars Ramqvist, Nils Rydbeck, Kurt Hellström
industry	Mobile phones, base stations, telephone exchanges
parent	Ericsson
predecessor	Svenska Radioaktiebolaget
subsid	Ericsson Mobile Communications