Ericsson veteran Ulf Ewaldsson will replace Hakan Eriksson as chief technology officer of the Swedish mobile equipment company but won't take his place at its Silicon Valley development center.
Ewaldsson will become senior vice president and CTO on Feb. 1 and will be based in Stockholm. He currently leads Ericsson's radio product group and helped define key products including HSPA (high-speed packet access) and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) radio access network gear. He was also involved in the development of Ericsson's AIR (Antenna Integrated Radio) small-cell system. He has worked for Ericsson since 1990 in several locations, including China, Japan, Hong Kong and Hungary.
Outgoing CTO Eriksson has been based in San Jose, California, since 2009, leading the company's Internet Protocol business and its Silicon Valley operation, which works with hardware, software and Internet companies in the area. Eriksson, whose wife is from Australia, is leaving to become head of the company's Australia, New Zealand and Fiji business.
Though Ewaldsson won't work in Silicon Valley, Ericsson said it will maintain its commitment to the area and strengthen partnerships there. The Silicon Valley center is the hub of Ericsson's IP business and its work on the convergence of fixed, mobile and Internet technology, the company said.
Ericsson is the world's biggest maker of cellular radio access networks and also sells other back-end mobile systems, along with technology for other fields. The company is pulling out of the mobile phone business, after Sony announced last year it would buy out the remaining shares of the Sony Ericsson joint venture.
Also on Friday, Ericsson reached a global cross-licensing agreement with Chinese telecommunications vendor ZTE, settling patent suits filed between the two companies last year.
Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com
